Kohala, Pakistan

Kohala is a town in Pakistan on the River Jhelum, north of Murree, south of Muzaffarabad, and east of Circle Bakote. The town was at the independence of Pakistan in 1947 a border town between newly created Pakistan and the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, but is today only the border between the rest of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir.LocationKohala is the site of the well-known Kohala Bridge across the Jhelum. Kohala is a gateway to the Muzaffarabad and Bagh districts of Azad Kashmir. It lies where the Punjab, Kashmir and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa boundaries meet.EtymologyThere are two theories regarding the etymology of Kohala. One is that it originates from the name of a Hindu goddess Kohala Devi because Kohala was a place where Hindu deities were worshipped on the banks of the Watesta (Jhelum) River before the arrival of Islam. A temple called Dawal was there.Another theory is that Kohala is derived from the Dhondi/Kareali language kohal, meaning "cattle room" or house that was divided in living room in ancient time or separate or beneath of living house in modern era, or gotrerhi, a place where livestock stay and sit.