Nurpur kingdom


Nurpur was a petty state in India from around the 11th century until it was annexed by the British East India Company in 1849. It covered an area of and is now part of Himachal Pradesh state. The ancient rulers of Nurpur patronised the Pahari painting style.
The capital of Nurpur State was the town of Nurpur which had a population of 4,462 according to the 1901 Census of India.

History

The state of Nurpur, originally known as Dhameri, was founded towards the end of the 11th century by Jhet Pal, who was the younger brother of the ruler of Delhi. It was ruled by of the Pathania dynasty, who claimed to be a branch of the Tomaras of Delhi. Nurpur reached its peak between 1580 and 1613 during the reign of Raja Basu Dev who built an impressive fort that can still be seen today. The state became a feudatory state of the Mughal Empire and later resisted Sikh domination until it fell to Ranjit Singh in 1815. The state was annexed by the British East India Company in 1849. Raja Jaswant Singh Pathania, the last ruling monarch of Nurpur, was financially compensated by the British for the loss of his state.
The change of name from Dhameri to Nurpur came after it was visited by Queen Nur Jahan. According to the local legend, she was so impressed by the beauty and richness of the town that she decided to stay there for the rest of her life. This decision worried the administration of Dhameri for at that time the Mughal Empire was expanding across India and the local leaders did not want their peaceful town to be a central point for Mughal domination and subject to the influence of external politics. Therefore, to deal with this without offending the queen and suffering the wrath of the Mughal Empire, they devised a simple but effective plan. They advised the queen that staying in their town for a long period of time could spoil her great beauty because there was a fictitious local disease that might afflict her. This terrified the queen so much that she hurriedly left. Thus in 1622, the name of the town was changed to Nurpur in honour of the Mughal queen who had fallen in love with the beauty of the place.

Rulers

The rulers of Nurpur bore the title 'Raja'.

Rajas