Naggar
More actions
| Naggar | |
|---|---|
| Nagar | |
| Hierarchy | |
| Growing Region | Western Himalayas |
| Growing Area | Kullu Valley |
| Geography | |
| Country | India |
| Province/State | Himachal Pradesh |
| District | Kullu District |
| Tehsil | Kullu Tehsil |
| Coordinates | 32.1133, 77.1640 |
| Settlement | |
| Type | Village |
| Population | 1,556 (2011) |
| Access | Road; bridge across the Beas to Patli Kulh |
| Landscape | |
| Terrain | Slope about 300 m above the left bank of the Beas |
| Documentation | |
| Accessions | 0 |
Naggar, enumerated in the 2011 census as Nagar, is a village on the left bank of the Beas in the Kullu Valley, in Kullu District, Himachal Pradesh, India.[1][2]: 58 It is the seat of the Naggar development block.[3] It served as the capital of the kingdom of Kullu until Raja Jagat Singh, who reigned from 1637 to 1672, moved the seat to Sultanpur.[4] The collector of the Chanderkhani Valley cannabis accessions described Naggar as "the gateway to Chanderkhani valley", the side valley above it that holds the villages of Rumsu, Pulag and Hallan.[5][6] From 1928 to 1947 the family of Nicholas Roerich lived on an estate above the village,[1] where they founded the Urusvati Himalayan Research Institute.[7] Walter Norman Koelz, the head of its biological and botanical section, arrived there in May 1930.[8]
Settlement and administration
Naggar stands on a slope about 300 m above the Beas. A bridge over the river connects it with Patli Kulh on the opposite bank.[1] The 2011 census enumerated it as "Nagar", with 1,556 inhabitants (780 males and 776 females) in 340 households on 87.94 ha.[2]: 58 In 2011 the village had bus services and an all-weather road; it was 21 km from Kullu, its main crops were barley, maize and pulses, and its handicrafts included caps.[9]
Naggar is one of the district's six development blocks and five panchayat samitis but not one of its seven tehsils.[10] The block office is in Naggar.[3] At the 2011 census the Naggar block had 101,550 inhabitants in 22,630 households.[2]: 52 Naggar, Rumsu, Pulag and Hallan, the last enumerated as Hallan-I, lay in Kullu tehsil.[9]
Cannabis cultivation
The Zomia Collective's index of growing regions lists Naggar under its Chanderkhani Valley heading, followed by the village areas and upper fields of Rumsu, Pulag and Hallan.[11] The same index describes the zone around Chanderkhani and Naggar as a "Mid-altitude belt above the Beas, with rotational field systems and long-established household seedlines".[11] The collector's diary of the September 2022 collecting visit calls Naggar "a small village on the east bank of the Beas river in Kullu Valley" and describes it as the start of a trail that climbs the Chanderkhani valley towards the pass by way of Rumsu.[5]
Former capital
The district administration's history of Kullu places the state's first capital at Jagatsukh, seat of twelve generations of early rajas. It records that Raja Visudh Pal moved the seat of government to Nagar and that Jagat Singh later took it to Sultanpur.[4] The district's census handbook says that Naggar "remained as the seat of the Government for as many as 1,400 years till it was finally moved to Kullu".[2]: 10
A castle of the rajas of Kullu stands on a steep rise overlooking the valley and now serves as a tourist lodge. According to the district's account, it is thought to date from the reign of Raja Sidh Singh and to have been built of stone carried from the Baragarh fort on the far side of the valley.[1] The district's history dates Sidh Singh's accession to 1500; the census handbook places him in the 15th century.[4][2]: 10
Urusvati Himalayan Research Institute
A road from the castle climbs to Hall, an estate that takes its name from a house built by a Colonel Rennick; the district's account says the house belongs to the Roerich family.[1] Nicholas and Helena Roerich lived on the estate with their sons, George and Svetoslav, from 1928 to 1947. The family founded the institute there.[7]
The institute was founded on 12 July 1928, with its headquarters "on land donated for this purpose by Professor Nicholas de Roerich, at Naggar in the Kulu Valley". Its report for 1929–30, printed in the first issue of its journal in July 1931, lists departments of archaeology and of natural sciences and applied research, a research library and a museum.[12] In the same issue V. Shibayeff described the headquarters as a two-storey house at 6,000 feet (about 1,830 m) on a ridge whose northern slope descends to the "Chhaki River, a side-stream of the Beas", with the museum and library on the lower floor. The museum's botanical collection covered Kullu and the neighbouring Lahaul and Kangra districts and held more than 5,000 plants. Annual rainfall at Naggar averaged 49.40 inches (about 1,255 mm) over 27 years.[13]
Koelz, then at the University of Michigan, reached the headquarters on 28 May 1930. He started work on the Kullu valley's alpine plants and on 10 July left for Lahaul across the Rohtang Pass.[8]
Svetoslav Roerich and his wife Devika Rani set up the International Roerich Memorial Trust in 1992–93, backed by the Russian embassy and the governments of India and Himachal Pradesh. The trust's stated aims are to preserve the family's heritage and to make the estate a museum and cultural centre.[7]
Accessions
No accessions are currently linked to Naggar.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Places of Interest". District Kullu. Government of Himachal Pradesh. Retrieved 27 September 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Directorate of Census Operations, Himachal Pradesh (2014). District Census Handbook, Kullu: Village and Town Wise Primary Census Abstract (Report). Census of India 2011, Himachal Pradesh, Series 03, Part XII-B. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Development Blocks". District Kullu. Government of Himachal Pradesh. Retrieved 27 September 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "History". District Kullu. Government of Himachal Pradesh. Retrieved 27 September 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Éloïse (4 September 2022). "Naggar-Rumsu". Zomia Collective. Retrieved 27 September 2026.
- ↑ "Chanderkhani Valley". Zomia Collective. Retrieved 27 September 2026.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "History and Objectives". International Roerich Memorial Trust. Retrieved 27 September 2026.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Annual report of the Himalayan Research Institute, 1929–1930" (PDF). Journal of Urusvati Himalayan Research Institute. 1 (1). New York: Roerich Museum Press: 74–76. July 1931 – via Nicholas Roerich Museum.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Directorate of Census Operations, Himachal Pradesh. Himachal Pradesh - Village Amenities (Spreadsheet (DH_2011_DCHB_Village_Release_0200.xlsx)). Census of India 2011, District Census Handbook, Kullu. Retrieved 27 September 2026.
- ↑ "Administrative Setup". District Kullu. Government of Himachal Pradesh. Retrieved 27 September 2026.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Growing Regions". Zomia Collective. Retrieved 27 September 2026.
- ↑ "Annual report of the Himalayan Research Institute, 1929–1930" (PDF). Journal of Urusvati Himalayan Research Institute. 1 (1). New York: Roerich Museum Press: 67–68. July 1931 – via Nicholas Roerich Museum.
- ↑ Shibayeff, V. (July 1931). "The Institute's Himalayan headquarters" (PDF). Journal of Urusvati Himalayan Research Institute. 1 (1). New York: Roerich Museum Press: 90–92 – via Nicholas Roerich Museum.