The Historian

In the first issue of this year, we travel to Patiala and zoom into its frescoes, miniature paintings and intricate artworks on towering walls.

- SAM DALRYMPLE

In the 18th century, as Mughal authority in Punjab disintegrated, the great city of Sirhind fell to waves of Maratha and Afghan raids. Long the largest city between Delhi and Lahore, it was dealt the final blow in the mid-18th century, when Sikh cheftain Baba Ala Singh dismantled its palaces to fund a new city of his own 30 kilometres to the south. Patiala—the land of Ala—was born, but even Ala Singh could not have imagined the architectural sophistication that would soon define it.

Over the next century, the successive rulers of Patiala transformed Ala Singh's fortress, Qila Mubarak, into what conservationist Abha Narain Lambah describes as “the most spectacular of all the fort-palace complexes of Punjab”. Inside are 10 courtyards linking charbagh gardens, late-Mughal arcades, Rajput pavilions and a Victorian bungalow with a fireplace for the maharaja’s English companions. Yet, its true marvels are its paintings.