 According to the people, a large village named "Matili" was transformed into Sadulshahar after 1947.It was under the supervision of the 19-year-old Maharaja Ganga Singh who after witnessing the miseries of the great 1899 famine, vowed to end starvation by building a canal in his State.The British pussyfooted, refusing water rights from the Sutlej River in Punjab.