Himachal
History
A Haunting History of Naggar Castle
Is Naggar castle in Kullu actually haunted? Well, many have tried to find out with some unpleasant results…
Locals of this sleepy village believe that the Naggar castle is haunted. That in the rooms and corridors of the castle roams the ghost of a Rani, who had committed suicide here. Here is a brief history of Naggar castle from animal sacrifice rituals to the ghost of a queen and more…
A medieval castle
Located in Naggar village of Kullu district in Himachal Pradesh, Nagar castle stands on a higher ground overlooking the Beas valley and snowy mountains. The castle was got built by Raja Sidh Singh in the early 16th century when Naggar used to be the capital of the erstwhile princely state of Kullu.
The wood-and-stone structure has been built in the traditional Kath-Kuni style of architecture. Here Kath means wood and Kuni means corner. In this architectural technique, layers of wood and stone are placed without using mortar.
According to the British gazetteer of Kangra District, 1897, the palace remained the residence of Kullu royalty until around the middle of the 17th century when Raja Jagat Singh shifted the capital from Naggar to Sultanpur in Kullu in 1660. However, even after the transfer of the capital, the castle remained the summer retreat of the Kullu Rajas.
Located on a hilltop, Sultanpur by this time was a major trading hub. Below Sultanpur was another bazaar, called Akhara.
“Akhara was occupied by religious mendicants and hence the name. The people of Lahaul used to take refuge here from the harsh winters back home. The shops were owned by people from Kangra, Lahaul and Ladakh and Punjab and engaged in trade between plans and Leh and Central Asia on the other side,” states the gazetteer.
Raja Jagat Singh had shifted the capital to Sultanpur after seizing it from Sultan Chand, the chief of Lag valley.
The Gazetteer states that it was Raja Jagat Singh, a contemporary of Shahjahan and Aurangzeb, who had first restored the Naggar castle.
Animal sacrifice at Naggar castle
Animal sacrifice used to be practised at the Naggar castle in front of the Jagatipatt temple. According to the Gazetteer of Kangra District, 1897, a dispute used to be settled at this temple through a unique method of animal sacrifice.
“The rivals would let loose one goat each on the temple ground and water would be sprinkled on them. The goat, which shivers first, brings victory to the owner. The other one is killed and eaten,” says the gazetteer.
It was also from this temple that the signal was given for the commencement of the Koli-ri-Diali (the Diwali of Kullu).
Naggar castle sold for a gun
The entire Kullu and Kangra regions came under the Britishers after they defeated Sikhs in the Anglo-Sikh war of 1846. Naggar castle at that time was owned by Raja Gyan Singh, who sold it to Major Hay, the first Assistant Commissioner of Kullu, for a gun. A gun? Yeah, you know a gun that fires shots or bullets.
Major Hay renovated the castle in a European style to suit his needs by fixing staircases, fireplaces and chimneys. The castle became the office and official residence of major Hay and many more Assistant Commissioners, who succeeded him in the following years. And from the castle they ruled their “little kingdom.”
F J Gore writes in his book Lights and Shades of Indian Hill Life (1895), “the people around are gentle and well-disposed and the Assistant Commissioner travels from one end of his little kingdom to the other with no greater protection than the stick in his hand.”
The haunting of Naggar castle
There is a popular scary legend about Naggar castle. This legend has been mentioned by British writer and traveller Penelope Chetwode in her book Kullu: The End of the Habitable World.
The legend goes something like this: A Raja of Kullu suspected his queen to be cheating on him. One day, wrestlers were asked to perform in front of the royal family in the courtyard of the castle. At the end of the performance, Raja turned to his youngest queen and asked her which one of the men she thought was the best. The innocent queen pointed towards one of the men she thought performed the best and the jealous Raja, suspecting him to be her lover, had him beheaded on the spot. A horrified queen rushed out and jumped off the veranda, dying immediately. Ever since that day, the ghost of the queen has been wandering in the castle.
Chetwode writes in her book that her friend J C French, a civil servant in India during the British days, had quite an unnerving experience at the Naggar castle. French wrote to Chetwode: “I slept in the western room of the castle, and shortly before midnight I awoke with a sense of uneasiness and oppression. I thought the night must have suddenly turned warm (it was cold when I went to bed) and I got up to open another window. As I stood up, swift and unmistakable as a gust of cold air or a drive of sleet came the sensation of fear. I went to the west wall of the castle and opened a window and all the time I was moving there and back, the sensation of fear was with me.”
Even Chetwode, her mother and few friends, during a visit to Naggar castle, had slept in the veranda in a hope to see the ghost of Rani. However, Chetwode writes that she stayed in the castle under moonlit nights many a times but never met the ghost of the Rani.
Evil consequences of Naggar fair
The Naggar fair is one of the oldest and most popular fairs of the Kullu valley. It’s held annually below the Naggar castle and on the grounds of the Tripura Sundari temple. Writer F J Gore, who visited the Kullu valley in the 1890s, witnessed the Naggar fair. He writes in his book Lights and Shade of Hill Life that “dressed in their best clothes, thousands of people visit the Naggar fair including the Raja of Kullu.”
There would be a lot of dancing and singing the whole day. And at sundown, Gore writes that the men would drink what he called ‘wretched’ Lugri, a local brew made from fermented rice, which inflamed the passions of men with some “evil consequences.”
“Torches are lit and by their glare the revel is continued far into the night with all the evil consequences of free intercourse of the sexes under such circumstances,” writes Gore.
Naggar castle today
The castle was converted into a heritage hotel by the state government in 1978 and since then it’s been run by the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC). Visitors can have a look inside by paying a nominal fee.
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