Sirmaur: Nahan, Paonta Sahib and the Gurkha years

Sirmaur (also written Sirmur) was the southernmost of the hill states, stretching from the Shivalik foothills up to the Churdhar peak. Its history is tied to two places: Nahan, the capital, and Paonta Sahib on the Yamuna, where Guru Gobind Singh spent three years.

The Prakash dynasty

The ruling family used the suffix Prakash. An older capital in the Giri valley, Sirmauri Tal, is said in local tradition to have been destroyed by a flood. In 1621 Raja Karam Prakash founded a new capital at Nahan, on a defensible ridge, and laid out its tank and temples.

Guru Gobind Singh at Paonta

Between roughly 1685 and 1688 the tenth Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh, lived at Paonta Sahib at the invitation of the Sirmaur raja. He composed part of the Dasam Granth there, and in 1688 fought and won the battle of Bhangani nearby against a coalition of hill rajas. The gurdwara at Paonta marks the site.

Gurkha occupation and the British

Gurkha forces overran Sirmaur in 1803 and held it for over a decade. In the closing campaign of the Anglo-Gurkha War in 1815 the British stormed the Gurkha positions around Nahan and Jaithak; Sirmaur was restored to its raja as a British-protected state. It acceded to India in 1948 and became a district of Himachal Pradesh.

Sources

• Wikipedia — Sirmur State
• Wikipedia — Paonta Sahib
• Wikipedia — Battle of Bhangani