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History lessons at the Naggar Castle

Staying on the left bank of the Beas had another advantage -- its proximity to Naggar, the former capital of Kullu. Nagger has the Roerich Art Gallery that exhibits paintings of the Russian painter, Nicholas Roerich.

After spending time at the Roerich Museum, we visited the 500-year-old Naggar castle built by Raja Sidha Singh. The castle, that survived the devastating earthquake of 1905 and has now been converted into a Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) Heritage hotel, offered a majestic view of the valley.

On the castle premises was a charming Jagti Patt temple carved beautifully in wood. Legend has it that when Naggar was chosen as the celestial seat of all the gods, a swarm of honeybees, the gods in disguise, brought a piece of the Deo Tibba peak to the site of this temple. This legend is written on a board at the temple.

We also visited a couple of more temples in the vicinity.

The store at the hotel had a good variety of authentic (and expensive) Kullu shawls and jackets. At the restaurant we had some great North Indian food. The hotel also has an amusement park for kids.

Text and photographs: Vidisha and Manish Gupta
Also read: Ooty: Call of the Blue Mountains by Resmi Jaimon

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