History in the hills
One of the most fulfilling journeys that we as a family have undertaken thus far has been the restoration of my ancestral home—The Sirmur Palace—witness to over 400 years of history and intrigue. In 1621, Raja Karam Prakash was looking for a new capital for his kingdom of Sirmur when he came across Baba Banwari Das (who is now revered as the town’s presiding deity), deep in meditation under a peepul tree. He advised the ruler to build the palace at that very spot, saying that the town of Nahan would come up around it.
Which it certainly did, and with layers of history wafting around it, the quaint town is home to as many as 14 heritage buildings. As for the peepul tree, it still stands in our courtyard, remaining untouched by all the subsequent rulers who added to the palace complex, the last addition being my father in the year 2017.
If someone asked me to pen a date on when the restoration journey started, it would have to be with my father getting involved with the Sirmur cases from 1973 onwards—land ceiling, compensation and family dispute, which at times stretched us thin but brought us closer as a unit. Legal disputes have plagued most erstwhile royal states since Independence so guess ours was no different. The cases continued till December 2016, when the High Court finally gave a verdict in our favour. That’s when we decided to embark on this renovation.
The buildings were crumbling due to neglect and the task ahead looked grim. Had it not been for my father’s vision and determination to keep the Sirmur built heritage alive, we would probably never have managed to do what we did. Two buildings out of the four in the palace complex are owned by us, and these were the ones we renovated for our personal use.
The front building houses both our drawing rooms, the ceilings of which are Nepalese metal work as my great-grandmother was from Nepal. In the upstairs drawing room, we have displayed a palanquin cover which my grandmother, Maharani Durga Kumari, first stepped out of on entering Nahan as a young bride. On the walls downstairs, we have displayed oil portraits, some old, some commissioned from an artist in Lucknow of all our ancestors in chronological order.
We have had the suites painted in English Wedgewood colours with old fox hunting, game birds, country life prints as well as black and white family pictures. One picture which I find interesting is of Lord Dufferin sitting in the chowgan with a block of ice hung on ropes to keep him cool. The Sirmur rulers used to be known as ‘burfi rajas’ during Mughal times as they owned the ice pits and supplied ice and herbs to the Delhi royal court.
Another favourite are the colourful handmade cement tiles we’ve used on the floors. The flooring of most of the palace had been cement with wall-to-wall carpeting that had been ruined by termite infestation. I spotted some vivid cement tiles in the older wing and decided to source them for all our rooms.
As the palace was getting restored, we built a five-bedroom cottage in our private pine forest, just 10 minutes away. I called it Bantony after Bantony Castle in Shimla which my grandfather, Maharaja Rajendra Prakash, sold in 1946. It has the same old-word charm and operates as a retreat for writers, academics, poets, historians, artists, musicians, yoga enthusiasts, birders, nature and heritage lovers (sirmurheritagestays@gmail.com). Guests staying here can come over to the palace for tea and to look at this living museum. Hopefully, they will be able to stay here soon as well: we have applied for a homestay registration that should come through in a month.