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Showing posts from July, 2020

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...

Tracing the Origins of Bilaspur's Chandela Rulers

Raja Ajmer Chand of Kahlur (Potrait at Brookings Museum) The more one reads about the nature of the ruling dynasties of the Hill states of the Western Himalayas, the more fascinating it gets. The realization that the Hill states indeed became a repository for a culture that literally vanished from the North and Centre of India starts to weigh in on the mind, and makes you wonder whether there can be any recreation as part of a cultural project, though it may be a near impossibility. I have talked about the nature of origins of Kullu, Suket and Mandi, particularly their links to Bengal’s old Gaudiya and Pala dynasties. However, another important state of the region came up from the central Indian heartland, which does not seem to get highlighted enough. The state of Bilaspur (of Himachal, not to be confused with Chhattisgarh), or Kahlur as it was also known, was set up by an offshoot from the ruling family of Chandela Rajputs of Bundelkhand. This has been interestingly captured by Hutc...

Nurpur Painting's Evolution - Remnants in Brij Raj Swami temple

I have written previously about the BrijRaj Swami temple of Nurpur, which has its own tale of protection from iconoclasm. The temple that stands today was actually the palace of Raja Jagat Singh Pathania, after the original temple as destroyed by forces of Shah Jahan in 1641. However, the present temple has unfortunately been coated with a horrendous blue paint, and neither the Himachal Pradesh government nor the Government of India and their archaeological bodies have made any efforts to restore the paintings of this temple. The painting frescoes of this temple are a classic example of the emergent Pahari art style, one sub-branch of which transformed into the Nurpur shaili  . The red backdrop, the perspective laden fine detailing among others are still visible in whatever is left of the temple's frescoes. I can only hope that it is revived soon. That would be true justice to the history of the region. For now, some pictures of frescoes that I had captured a couple of years ago. E...