Himachal Archives

A possible portrait (dated 1730) of Raja Jagat Singh Pathania (from the Eva and Konrad Seitz collection) History is a subject of speculation as much as it is about evidence. The more you read, the more you see gray areas everywhere. However, certain fields of history, like that of the Himalayan states for instance, is a rather problematic subject. Insufficient publicly available evidence, lack of local interest, and 'remoteness' from the larger picture has often rendered the subject to ignominy. However, it is a small but earnest attempt of this blog to keep exploring and writing on the subject in one way or the other.  A few months ago, I had talked of the Brajraj Panchashika, and seen the trends of Braj bhasha kavita in the region serving as evidence to suggest certain historical trends. However, there was definitely a broader trend in the region of such Braj bhasha ballads. The ballad of Raja Jagat Singh by Kavi Gambhir Rai is another example of this, and the more you read...

Raja Ranjit Dev of Jammu (courtesy Christie's) Reading through the Rajdarshani, the annals of Jammu's history as written by Ganesh Das Badehra, has been a rather engaging exercise. The deeper one goes into the text, the more layers on the missing links to the history of the Panjab Hill States open up. One particular aspect of the history that gets less highlighted (rather ignored) is the rivalry of Jammu and Kangra. It is rather intriguing that the popular memory gap has been so poorly discussed and deliberated upon anywhere. One such instance, thanks to Dr. S S Charak’s work on a critical edition of the Rajdarshani, has been rather useful.  It is not surprising that there is rivalry -through the history of the region, these were the two biggest princely states, and so it was but natural that competition for influence would take place. Curiously, the two have also seen continuity of dynasties for more than a millennium at the least. While the rivalries of Nagarkot or Kangra and...

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...

Recently, it came to my notice that Nurpur shaili of Pahari paintings too had a series of masters that have been feted well. Of course, most of them are confined to the Rasamanjari collection in terms of fame, what was interesting to note of this school was the presence of a family tradition. Portrait of Golu - Courtesy Met Museum In their catalogue of a selection of Indian paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of New York,  John Guy and Jorrit Britschgi have pointed out that unlike say Basohli, where no documentation of the existence of painter families, there  are inventory lists ( bahis ) for the painter Devidasa from Nurpur. Despite the proximity of the schools, this claim of divergence seems an oddity. It is well known how the Jasrota clan who were the original patrons of the Basohli school had also patronized Pandit Seu and his son Nainsukh of Guler, who were rather famous master artisans of the Guler school of paintings. Such a claim does not make sense therefore and sh...