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 Running alongside the Kullu valley, the Kangra valley, equally
beautiful, combines the charm of a Devonshire coomb with the steep silhouette of the Dolomites soaring up into the sky on either side. There are several tea gardens dedicated to the production of both green and black tea. Sturdily built and handsome, the people of the valley are renowned as hardy and courageous soldiers. The Gaddis of Kangra lead a simple and unsophisticated life, with a few needs and fewer worries, they are content with their lot. Ethnologically select, the Gaddis of Kangrs originated in the Bharmour area. erant and distinctively costumed with the long rope they tie around their waist, these gay and semi-nomads in habit, they found their way across the Dhaula Dhar whilst in quest of grazing pastures for their herds of sheep. Unlike the Gujars of Kashmir
who are Muslims, the Gaddis are Hindus and have permanent villages in the valley bottoms, Where they are engaged in agriculture. The women remain in the villages while the men roam with their sheep and goats in the higher meadows during summer. Here, they live a hard and adventurous life, often having to scare away leopards and bears who prowl arround to attack their sheep. Their faithful sheep dogs are of great help to them. Cheerful and courageous, they add colour to the region. The main approach to the town is from Pathankot. South of Triund, lies the ancient town of Kangra, 17 km from Dharamsala and overlooking the gushing torrent Ban-ganga, reached after passing through a beautiful valley that has the luxuriant and luminous quality of a Kangra painting. In the valley, sometimes, the plaintive strains of a haunting melody reach the ear-the sone is not sad but melancholy, recalling as it does, the glory of the days of yore, when the good Raja Sansar Chand Katoch ruled in feudal splendur in the 18th century, but gave his heart to a comely Gaddi maiden. Stepped in romance, the glory of the valley is brought out in the invaluable and delicate Kangra paintings that the Raja commissioned to express his love for the nimble maiden and the beautiful land, she roamed in. Former capital of the great hill state, it is the home of the exquisite Pahari and Rajpur miniature paintings which flourished under the unstinted patronage of Raja Sansar Chand II (1775-1823). Artists had started to migrate to the Himalayas after the invasion of Nadir Shah in 1739, the migrate to the Himalayas after the invasion of Nadir Shah in 1739, the influx reached its peak during the reign of the Raja who held court for 25 years, in the fortress he built for himself in the Oudh-Moghul style of architecture. The fort is still there but due to repeated seige, is partially in ruins. Under its shadow is the resplendent temple to the Goddess Vajreshwari, its golden dome spreading lustre for miles around. The ancient temple was once filled with diamonds and pearls worth a king's ransom and, unfortunately its fame spread to the ears of Sultan Mahmud, who had set up a new Islamic state in the uplands of Afghanistan, with its capital in Ghazni. At the beginning of the 11th century, Mahmud opend the era with a raid on the plains of the Punjab in the year 1,001. During his hit, plunder and run raids, the temple of Vajreshwari and Kangra ittself did not escape Mahmud's avaricious designs. The faithful filled the temple up again, only to be plundered by Firoz Tughlak, 300 years later, who also subjugated Kangra. The last raid before the take-over of the town by the Moghul emperor Jehangir, was by Taimur the Lane, the Mongol emperor from Central Asia, Who heard of the fabulous riches of the lustrous capital in the 14th century. There was peace and quiet during the Moghul era, the town flourished and more temples were built, However, peace was rudely interruped in the end of the eighteenth century in 1799, when Ranjit Singh, having secured Lahore, set upon subjugating the whole of the Punjab. Once again, Kangra went through travail tumoil, and the agony of war. Raja Sansar Chand moved his capital and court first to Nadaun, 65 km from Dharamsala, and later, towards the decline of empire, to Sujanpurtira, 80 km Dharamsala, and on the banks of the snow-fed foaming Beas, whose spray lends magic and grandeur to the place. Here the good King died in 1823.
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Kangra Fort