The village of Asarur has been identified as the location of Taki, an ancient town, visited by the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsiang contains immense ruins of Buddhist origin.

The district flourished during Mughal rule, from the days of Akbar to those of Aurangzeb, wells were scattered over the whole country, and villages lay thickly dotted about the southern plateau, now a barren waste of grass land and scrub jungle.

Eminabad and Hafizabad were the chief towns (the latter now part of a separate district), while the country was divided into six well-tilled parganas.

The tribes at present occupying the District are all immigrants of recent date, and before their advent the whole region seems for a time to have been almost entirely abandoned.

The only plausible conjecture to account for this sudden and disastrous change is that it resulted from the constant wars by which the Punjab was convulsed during the last years of Mughal Imperial rule.

Between 1747 and 1772 the Durrani Afghans of Ahmad Shah Abdali and the Sikh Misls vied for control of the region following the power vacuum left by the Mughals.

Eventually the Sikh Sukerchakia Misl of Charat Singh won out and occupied the area of Gujranwala making it his new capital.

In 1849, the district was occupied by the British East India Company who annexed the entirety of the Sikh Empire after defeating them in the Second Anglo-Sikh War.

[5] The chief towns during British rule were the municipalities of Gujranwala, the headquarters of the District, Wazirabad, Rasulnagar, Ali Pur Chattha, Eminabad, Qila Didar Singh, and the notified area of Sodhra.

[citation needed] Gujranwala is largest manufacturer of sanitary fittings, textiles, plastic furniture, pots, room coolers and heaters, gas stove and agricultural tools and equipment.