Place · colonial summer capital · India
Shimla
Also known as Simla, Shimla town
Shimla on the Lower Himalayan ridge of Himachal Pradesh, settled by the British from 1819 as a convalescent station and designated summer capital of the Government of India from 1864 — a role it kept until independence. Seven hills and a 12-km Ridge-and-Mall promenade carry Christ Church, the Gaiety Theatre, the Viceregal Lodge (now the Indian Institute of Advanced Study), the state secretariat, the State Museum, and a dense inventory of colonial bungalows and temples. Capital of Himachal Pradesh since 1971; site of the 1945 Simla Conference and the 1972 Simla Agreement.
- Periods
- British Colonial Age, Republic and Living Practice
- Function
- Authority & administration
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 31.105, 77.173
Connections (10)
- Site withinViceregal Lodge, Shimla
The Viceregal Lodge on Observatory Hill, designed by Henry Irwin and completed in 1888 as the summer residence of the Viceroys of India, now houses the Indian Institute of Advanced Study. Observatory Hill is one of the seven hills of Shimla and sits at the west end of the Ridge-and-Mall spine. The 1945 Simla Conference between the Raj and the Congress-League was held in its council chamber.
- Site withinChrist Church, Shimla
Christ Church on the Ridge at Shimla, consecrated 1857 on a Colonel Boileau design — the second oldest church in north India and the Anglican cathedral of the diocese of Amritsar. Lockwood Kipling designed the five chancel windows; the 1899 pipe organ is in weekly use. The church is the central landmark of the Ridge and visible from the entire upper town.
- Site withinJākhū Hanumān Temple, Shimla
The Jākhū Hanumān Temple on the 2,455-m Jākhū hill is the highest point in Shimla and traditionally identified as the spot where Hanumān rested on his flight to Dronagiri to fetch the Sanjīvanī herb for Lakṣmaṇa. The 108-ft statue of Hanumān erected on the summit in 2010 is visible from the Ridge, the Mall and the Viceregal Lodge estate below.
- Site withinThe Ridge & Mall Road, Shimla
The Ridge and Mall Road form the 12-km pedestrian east-west spine of Shimla. The Ridge carries Christ Church, the State Library and Scandal Point; the Mall carries the Gaiety Theatre, the Town Hall and the Combermere Bridge. Vehicle-free since colonial times; the 1875 Ridge reservoir underneath still supplies much of the city's water from its mountain springs.
- Site withinKālī Bāṛi Temple, Shimla
The Kālī Bāṛi below the Mall was founded in 1845 by Bengali civil servants of the colonial Shimla administration who missed Kālīghāṭ. The deity Śyāmā Kālī was later re-identified with Śyāmalā, the local Pahari form after whom the hill of 'Śyāmalā' was Anglicised to 'Shimla'. The Durgā and Kālī Pūjā here are the oldest continuous Bengali rites in Himachal.
- Site withinTārā Devī Temple, Shimla
The Tārā Devī Temple at Tārā Parvat, 11 km south-west of Shimla, is a 250-year-old shrine founded by Raja Bhūpendra Sen of Keonthal state, who brought the Tārā image from Bengal. The Tārā of Vajrayāna Buddhism — the female bodhisattva of compassion — is worshipped here as a form of Mahādevī. The Kalka-Shimla railway halt below is named after the temple.
- Site withinGaiety Theatre, Shimla
The Gaiety Theatre on the Mall, designed in Scottish Baronial-Gothic by Henry Irwin and opened 23 May 1887, was the summer theatre of the Government of India for sixty years. Rudyard Kipling, Baden-Powell, M. M. Kaye and K. L. Saigal all performed on its stage. Rebuilt sympathetically in 2008; still houses the Shimla Amateur Dramatic Club, founded 1838.
- Site withinHimachal State Museum, Shimla
The Himachal State Museum at Chaura Maidan, inaugurated 1974 in a late-19th-century British bungalow on the Mount Pleasant estate. The collection runs from Mehrgarh pottery through Pahari miniature painting (Guler, Kangra, Chamba, Basohli), 8th-century Mandi stone sculpture, Tibetan thangkas, Himachal doll crafts and Gandhi-era photographs. The Pahari rooms are the finest publicly accessible collection outside Chandigarh and Delhi.
- Site withinRothney Castle, Shimla
Rothney Castle on Jākhū hill was the Shimla residence of A. O. Hume from 1870 until 1894. From its library he wrote the March 1883 open letter to the Calcutta University graduates that led directly to the first session of the Indian National Congress at Bombay in December 1885. Rothney Castle is in that sense one of the few surviving incubator sites of modern Indian political life.
- ReachesKalka–Shimla Railway
The Kalka-Shimla Railway — 96 km of 2-ft 6-in narrow gauge between Kalka and Shimla, opened 9 November 1903 by Bhāgwān Singh for the Delhi-Ambala-Kalka Railway Company — climbs 1,420 m through 102 tunnels and 988 bridges to reach the summer capital. Inscribed on the UNESCO 'Mountain Railways of India' list in 2008 alongside the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.
Sources
Standard reference.
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