History of District Chamba

In our previous posts, we talked about the History of Kangra and History of Mandi.

In this post, we discuss about the historical events of district Chamba of Himachal Pradesh.

Kindly point out the mistakes, if any, in the comment section.

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• Aditya Varman was the first to assume suffix of Varman. He was the great grand-father of Meru Varman.

• Maru Varman had three sons. The youngest son was Meru who founded the town Bharmour and made it the capital of the new state.

• Meru Varman (680 A.D.) built the following temples:  Manimahesh temple, Lakshana Devi temple, Ganesha temple and Narshingha temple.

• Meru Varman also built the Shrine of Suraj Mukha.

• Mushan Varman (820 A.D.) prohibited the killing of mice in his Kingdom.

• Sahil Varman (920 A.D.) transferred the seat of government from Brahmpura to the new capital, founded at Chamba.

• The Chamba town was named after the Princess Champawati the daughter of Sahil Varman.

• Suhi fair is held in Chamba from 15 Chait to the 1^st of Vaisakh in the memory of Rani Sunaina Devi the wife of Sahil Varman. In this fair only women and children allowed to participate.

• Sahil Varman built the following temples i.e. Laxmi-Narayan temple or Vishnu Chanderashekhara temple, Chandragupta temple and Kameshwara temple.

• Yugankar Varman (940 A.D.) built the temple Gauri-Shakar.

• From the time of Prithvi Singh (1641 A.D.) the old suffix Varman was entirely dropped and new suffix Singh was adopted.

• Raja Ugar Singh (1720 A.D.) imposed a tax for temple maintenance called Tusera Udai Singhiana Auteriana.

• Umed Singh (1748 A.D.) left orders before his death that no Rani was to become sati on his funeral.

• First European to visit Chamba was Mr. Vigne in February 1939.

• In the same year (1939), Chamba was visited by Mr. Cunningham who was the first to examine the Archeological remains in the state.

• During the first war of Independence in A.D. 1857, Sri Singh helped the government and sent troops to Dalhousie under Mian Autar Singh. During his reign Chamba came under the influence of British.

• Governor General of India, Lord Mayo visited Chamba on 13^th November 1871.

Other important details about district Chamba:

• Headquarter: Chamba

• Altitude: 1006 meters.

• Languages spoken: Chambyali & Hindi.

• The District is located between 32°10’ and 33°13’ North Latitude and 75°45’ and 77°33’ East Longitude.

• There are three prominent valleys in district Chamba i.e. Beas valley, Ravi valley or Chamba valley and Chenab valley or Pangi-Chamba-Lahaul valley.

• There are three snowy ranges in district Chamba i.e. Dhauladhar, Zanskar and Hathidhar.

• The Chamba district has two major rivers i.e. Chenab and Ravi.

• Origin of River Chenab is near the top of Baralacha Pass in Lahaul from two main streams Chandra and Bhaga which meets in Tandi. Gold is found in this river in small quantity.

• Origin of Ravi is from Bara- Banghal.

• Sheep breeding farm is at Sarol (Chamba).

• State Bank of India Branch was opened in Chamba in 1957.

• Himachal Pradesh State Co-operative Bank branch was opened in Chamba in April 1965.

• Bhuri Singh Museum was innagurated in 1908.

• The first Hydro-electric station was commissioned to Chamba town in 1910.

Read more: Take a Quiz on History of Chamba

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Author: Karun