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The Ballad of Raja Malhi Prakash and Sirmour's History - Some Scrambled Thoughts

I was just walking through some documents I had saved over the years, when it struck me that there has been very little new research work or relook into the history of the hill states. One particular format has been the examination of oral ballads, very few of which seem to be available in popular culture today. However, that was certainly not the case in the British era, when much field work seems to have been done by scholars of Europe on the subject, as they panned across the state of the Lahore kingdom and their adjunct territories. Sirmour was a Small Princely state along the Yamuna river's course While their purpose may have been malevolent in nature, many interesting insights got captured over the course of their work, and replication or improvement on the same seems to be rather scarce, especially in the context of what the European scholars used to call the "Punjab Hill States". One such case was on Sirmour, where very little information can be found in the publi...
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Kullu's guest appearance in a Kashmiri Chola Legend

Kullu is globally known for its vibrant gathering of the various devatas of Kullu valley, all coming to visit the royal family at the time of Dussehra. The royal family have been hosting the idol of Raghunath ji or Sri Rama at the Raghunath temple of Kullu. These devatas, or local deities, are all invited into the Ramchandra darbar by the royal family of  Kullu as per tradition. While the festival is recorded to be at least from the 16th century. However, few people know that Kullu is the oldest state after Punjab and Kangra, known in the past as Kuluta. The oldest reference to the state comes from a coin issued by a certain Virayasa, the king who had it issued, dating back to 1-2 CE, as pointed out by Parmeshwari Lal Gupta and Hutchison and Vogel earlier.  References to the state comes in the Mahabharata as the tribe north of the Kuru kingdom, alongside the Trigarta and the Kashmir kingdoms.

It is however the reference in the Rajataramgini of Kalhana that we have an interesting episode mentioned, one that I would like to specify here. Around the 6th century A.D., as Kalhana records, there was a certain king Ratisena of the Cholas, who sent his daughter Ranarambha to the residence of his friend, the then king of Kuluta, and where Ranaditya, the king of Kashmir at the time 'went with joy to that not distant land' to receive her. As this incident, highlighted by Hutchison and Vogel, indicates, there were perhaps indications of a larger pan India alliance developed between the Cholas and the Gonandiya Dynasty ruling at the time in Kashmir, but also indicating a position of minor importance for the state of Kuluta. This is an interesting point of reference - little is known of the Chola kings during this period, though it is broadly accepted that the Cholas were at their lowest ebb politically for three centuries starting with the 6th century A.D. Therefore, to find a reference to the Cholas in the North Indian texts at the time is quite surprising. This Ranarambha, according to Rajatarangini, went on to become the queen of Kashmir by marrying Ranaditya. However, it was in Kuluta, a supposed feudatory of the Kashmir king, that the two met before their union.

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