Patialaਪਟਿਆਲਾ

The royal city

Patiala was founded in 1763 by Baba Ala Singh, the Sikh chief who built the largest of the cis-Sutlej princely states. His successors raised the Qila Mubarak at its heart, and the city grew as a planned royal capital with broad avenues, gardens and palaces. From 1948 to 1956 it served as the capital of the Patiala and East Punjab States Union, the federation of the old princely states.

The state's rulers, the Bhupinder and Yadavindra Singhs, made Patiala a centre of culture and sport, and the city's name travelled India on the Patiala peg of whisky, the Patiala salwar, and the turban styles of its durbar.

Palaces and institutions

The Qila Mubarak complex, the Sheesh Mahal with its mirror-work halls and museum, the Moti Bagh Palace and the Baradari Gardens remain the city's great landmarks. Punjabi University, founded in 1962, made Patiala an education city, and its campus holds one of the great Punjabi reference libraries. The National Institute of Sports trains India's athletes on the old palace grounds.

The district today

Patiala district, with about 1.9 million people counted in 2011 across roughly 3,218 square kilometres, mixes the royal city with an industrial and agricultural hinterland. Rajpura has grown into an industrial town on the Chandigarh highway, Nabha keeps its own princely history, and Samana and Patran serve the southern mandis.

The district's fields grow wheat and paddy, and its towns feed the grain markets of the region. Village-level pages for Patiala district are being added to the Kosh.