Chaugan And Old Temples Belt.Chamba town sits on a small plateau above the Ravi River, where steep hills drop down to the wide green Chaugan – the main open ground used for festivals, cricket matches, fairs and evening walks. Old bazaar lanes climb up from the Chaugan into a maze of stone houses, shops and temples. From here you see ranges of the Pir Panjal, terraced fields and the river down below. Chamba is famous for its old stone temples, palaces with green roofs, Pahari miniatures, Chamba chappals and hand-embroidered rumals. During big events like Minjar Mela and Suhi Mata Mela, the town fills with music, processions and stalls, and the Chaugan becomes a living stage of Himachali folk culture.
About this place
History & highlights
The Chamba region’s history goes back to at least the 2nd century BCE, but the organised kingdom is traced from around 500 CE, when Raju Maru founded the early Maru/Varman dynasty with its capital at Bharmour. In 920 CE, Raja Sahil Varman shifted the capital to a new site on the Ravi, naming it Chamba after his daughter Champavati. Over more than a thousand years, 60+ kings of this line ruled here, building temples, palaces and waterworks; land grants on copper plates from medieval rajas are still legally recognised today. Under British suzerainty (from 1846) the town got new civic buildings, roads and a planned frontage around the Chaugan, but its core temple–palace cluster remained intact. After accession to India in 1948, Chamba became a district HQ of Himachal Pradesh, yet it still feels like a small hill capital where medieval shrines, Raj-era offices and modern markets overlap in a compact heritage town.
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