Mandi and Suket: the sister states on the Beas

Mandi and Suket were sister states, founded by two brothers of the same Sen dynasty, and they sat on either side of the Beas where the roads from Kullu, Kangra and the plains met. The rivalry between them ran for centuries; today they make up most of Mandi district.

The Sen dynasty

The ruling family claimed descent from the Chandravanshi kings of Bengal. Suket was the older state; Mandi was founded when a prince broke away and, in 1526, Raja Ajbar Sen established a new capital at the river crossing that became Mandi town. He is remembered as the builder of the Bhutnath temple and the town's grid of streets.

Chhoti Kashi

Under Raja Sidh Sen (reigned 1684–1727) Mandi reached its height. A soldier and a patron of temple-building, he expanded the state and raised many of the stone shikhara temples that earned Mandi the name Chhoti Kashi — "little Varanasi". The Mandi Shivratri fair, when the region's village deities are carried into town, dates in its present form from this period.

Sikh and British periods

Like its neighbours, Mandi paid tribute to Ranjit Singh in the early 19th century and then became a British-protected princely state after 1846. Its last ruling raja, Joginder Sen, signed the accession to India, and Mandi and Suket were merged into Himachal Pradesh on 15 April 1948.

Sources

• Wikipedia — Mandi State
• Wikipedia — Suket State
• Wikipedia — Mandi, Himachal Pradesh