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Chamba
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Nestled on the bank of the river Ravi, Chamba town complete 1000 years of its existence. The town stands on a plateau on the right bank of the Ravi river valley between Dhauladhar and Zanskar ranges south of the inner Himalayas. This town was founded by Raja Sahil Varman in the beginning of 10th Century. In the genealogical rolls of the Chamba Rajas, a reference occurs of place, which was adorned with highly fragrant Champaka trees and guarded by Goddess Champavati.
The temple was built by Sahil Varman in the honour of his daughter Champavati who is worshipped as a goddess in Chamba. This glorious journey of one thousand years is a rich repository a highly civilized, cultured and developed society which existed in the lap of Himalayas. The unique architect of houses and temples, splendid wood and metal craft, world fame Chamba Rumal and Chappal and of course the exquisite pahari paintings are some salient features of this one thousand years young town. The
Chamba town has a number of temples, Palaces and stylized buildings. The striking objects of interest are the old temples which exhibit architectural beauty of design and execution.
Laxmi Narayana
Temple, which is the main
temple of Chamba town, was built by Sahil Varman in the 10th century AD. There are several other temples within the complex.
The temple of
Radha Krishna, Shiva Temple of Chandergupta and
Gauri Shankar
Temple are among these. The ancient
temple of Vajreshwari is believed to be 1000 years old and is dedicated to Devi Vajreshwari-Goddess of lightning. The Sui Mata temple can be divided into three parts which can physically spread apart. The Hari Rai temple is dedicated to Lord Vishnu and dates back to 11th century. A yet another place of interest in Chamba town is the
Bhuri Singh
Museum at Chamba which came into existence on 14th September, 1908. It is named after Raja Bhuri Singh who ruled Chamba from 1904 to 1919. Bhuri Singh donated his family collection of paintings to the museum. The embroidered Chamba-Rumals are related in style since their drawings were made by pahari painters though the embroidery was done by the household ladies.
Reference of Chamba town would be incomplete without the majestic Chaugan. It is the heart and hub centre of all activities in Chamba. Tradition is silent as to its use as a polo ground and the name is etymologically distinct from Chaugan, the Persian name of Polo, being of Sanskrit origin and meaning 'four-sided'. Initially the five Chaugan were a single patch of meadow. To mark the completion of 1000 years of this town, the Government of Himachal Pradesh is celebrating the millennium of this town from 14th to 20th April, 2006 in a most befitting way. The celebrations would provide the people the opportunity to have a first hand knowledge of the rich cultural and historical past of the Chamba town.
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The mountain ranges running through Chamba from south-east to north-west and forming the watersheds of the great rivers are,-the Outer Himalaya or Dhaula-Dhar, separating the Bias from the Ravi; the Mid-Himalaya or Pangi Range-the Pir Panjal of geologists-separating the Ravi from the Chinab; and the Main Himalaya closing in the State to the north and separating the Chinab from the Indus. Chamba has had the rare good fortune to escape the successive waves of Muhammadan invasion, which swept away all monuments of old Indian civilization on the plains. The result is that its ancient remains are more abundant and better preserved than in any other part of the Panjab.Sir Alexander Cunningham was the first to draw attention, in 1839, to the ancient remains of Chamba, but it was only in more recent years that the whole wealth of antiquarian and especially epigraphically material has come to light. The inscriptions are found all over the State and are remarkable alike for their number and their variety. Excluding the last two centuries, no fewer than l30 inscriptions have been collected, of which 50 are of the pre-Muhammadan and 80 of the Muhammadan period. The oldest inscriptions are in the Gupta character, of the seventh century. The Chamba District is situated between north latitude 32° 11΄ 30″ and 33° 13΄ 6″ and east longitude 75°49 and 77° 3΄ 30″, with an estimated area of 6528 square Kilometers and is surrounded on all sides by lofty hill ranges. The territory is wholly mountainous with altitude ranging from 2,000 to 21,000 feet.
HOW TO GET THERE
1. Rail: or by Air Connected with Pathankot, Gagal Airport (80 km) which in turns, is connected with all over India
2. Road: Shimla,
Delhi, Manali Dharamshala and
Jammu.
3. Air: Gaggal airport 10 km, from Kangra town on Pathankot-Manali highway, Vayudoot operates from
Delhi, Shimla and Chandigarh. Places of Tourist Interest
Lakshminarayan
Temple
The Lakshminarayan temple complex is very important from the archaeological point of view. This temple was constructed during the 10th century at the time of king Sahil Verma. In this complex, there are five other main temples namely Radha Krishna, Chandra Sekhara Mahadev, Gaurishankara, Tryambakeshwara and Laxmi Damodara. They are artistically decorated and all have been built in the Nagar style. There are also some other small temples in the complex, there is a galaxy of temples in Chamba which are dedicated to Harirai, Champavati, Bansigopal, Ram Chandra, Bajreshwari, Chamunda, Narisingh and Yogi Charpat Nath etc.
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