Black and White Picture of Raja Ugar Singh of Hindur, 1840-1850 (from Archer's book on Punjab Hills Paintings) Picture the year: 1795. The foothills of the Shivaliks are tense, echoing with the tramp of armed men and the grinding pressure of regional rivalries. Down in the valleys, Raja Ram Saran Singh Handuriya of Handur (modern-day Nalagarh) is caught in a grinding political bind. For years, Handur has ridden the coattails of Kangra’s aggressive campaigns against its bitter historical rival, Bilaspur (then known as Kahlur). But looking out across his contested borders, Ram Saran Singh faces a heavier, more haunting question: Does he continue serving as a satellite to Kangra’s ambitions, or does he break away, side with Maha Chand and Bilaspur, and reclaim a fractured sense of Rajput honor? The friction between Handur and Bilaspur was rooted in continuous struggles over strategic border zones, crucial river-crossing points, and the Satgarha (seven forts) territory. Because Handur...
Poster describing Shahpurkandi Fort (courtesy Panjab Digital Library ) Pathankot. A sleepy border town today. A land of bravehearts, and more renowned for a terror attack on the air base in 2016. Yet, there was once a history of Pathankot that few remember in public memory today. Especially of Shahpur Kandi. Shahpur Kandi is a Fort that falls in Punjab today. It used to be part of the premise of the Nurpur princely state. Nurpur was ruled by the Pathanias, a dynasty that was known as much for bravery and wit as it was for its patronage of art, patronizing the Nurpur shaili of Pahari paintings. Yet, at least nine years before the Indian war for Independence that took place in 1857, an uprising shook the British East India Company to its core. It was 1848, and Ram Singh Pathania, who was going incognito post the collapse of the Lahore Durbar, had decided to repatriate himself with his father Sham Singh Pathania to Nurpur. Taking the title of Wazir there, these supposedl...