Kapurthalaਕਪੂਰਥਲਾ

History

Tradition credits the founding of Kapurthala to Rana Kapur, a Bhatti Rajput, in the early eleventh century. The town's modern importance begins with the Ahluwalia misl: Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, one of the great Sikh chiefs of the eighteenth century, established his capital here around 1772, and Kapurthala remained the seat of his dynasty through the nineteenth century. The state survived the British annexations as a princely state and acceded to India in 1948, joining PEPSU.

The state's most famous ruler was Maharaja Jagatjit Singh, who reigned from 1877 to 1947 and travelled widely in Europe. He remade his capital in a French idiom — the Jagatjit Palace, modelled on Versailles, and the Moorish Mosque, inspired by the Koutoubia of Marrakesh — which is why Kapurthala is still called the Paris of Punjab. The palace now houses the Sainik School, and the mosque remains one of the finest Moorish-revival buildings in Asia.

Geography & people

Kapurthala stands in the heart of the Doaba plain at about 225 metres above sea level, on the Jalandhar–Amritsar railway line. The district headquarters city holds about a lakh people. Punjabi dominates; the old city's mohallas still carry the names of the princely era. The surrounding countryside is classic Doaba farmland — wheat, paddy and sugarcane — and the Beas flows not far to the north.

The Rail Coach Factory at Hussainpur, on the city's edge, has built passenger coaches for Indian Railways since production began in 1988, and its township is a town within the town.

Places of interest

Kapurthala's sights are its princely buildings: the Jagatjit Palace (viewable from outside as the Sainik School campus), the Moorish Mosque, the Elysee Palace, and the Shalimar Gardens. The Pushpa Gujral Science City on the Jalandhar road is one of north India's best science museums. Sultanpur Lodhi, where Guru Nanak spent fourteen formative years, lies in the same district.

Notable people

Kapurthala's history is the story of its rulers: Jassa Singh Ahluwalia (1718–1783), the misl chief who made it a capital, and Maharaja Jagatjit Singh (1872–1949), the francophile builder of its palaces and mosque, whose travels and patronage put the small state on the world map. The state's prime ministers and courtiers — and later, the engineers of the Rail Coach Factory — carried its name into modern India.