Nahan

Nahan was founded in 1621 by Raja Karam Prakash as the capital of Sirmaur, one of the old hill states, on a ridge at about 930 metres in the outer Shivaliks. It was planned with care — tanks to hold the rain, stone-paved lanes climbing between them, a palace at the top — and much of that order is still visible. Later rajas added a foundry, a municipal committee in the 1860s among the earliest in the hills, and broad walks round the ridge for the evening air.

Sirmaur sits where the plains of Haryana give way to the Himalaya. The Gorkhas held these hills briefly in the early nineteenth century; the ruins of their fort at Jaitak still stand above the town. When they were driven out in 1815, a battalion raised from Gorkha soldiers here took the name Sirmoor, and carried it through nearly two centuries of service.

Nahan's life runs at walking pace. Villa Round and Military Round, the two loops along the ridge, fill each evening with families, retired soldiers and schoolchildren. Rani Tal and Pakka Tank, the old stone-sided tanks, hold the town's temples close. Forty kilometres away, Renuka Lake — Himachal's largest natural lake, shaped by legend like a woman lying on her side — is sacred to Renuka, mother of Parashurama. In November, at the Shri Renuka Ji fair, Parashurama's palanquin is carried from his village temple to meet her, and the hills come down to watch.

Food is Sirmauri and plain. Siddu, steamed wheat buns stuffed with walnut or poppy-seed paste, come with ghee. Patande, thin pancakes, are a local speciality made for festivals. In winter there are madra-style curries of chickpeas or beans cooked in yoghurt, and in season the hillside markets carry ginger, garlic and Sirmaur's peaches.

Walk Villa Round at dusk, when the lights come on across the plains below. See Renuka early, while the lake is still and the herons are fishing; the boating is gentle and the small wildlife park beside it is better for children than for wildlife. The Bala Sundari temple at Trilokpur is busiest at the Chaitra and Ashvin Navratris. Churdhar, at about 3,650 metres the highest peak in the outer Himalaya, is a long, steady day's climb to the Shirgul Maharaj shrine; go between May and October with someone who knows the path, and don't race the weather.

Nahan is a small, conservative town that sees few tourists, which is much of its charm. Dress modestly, especially at temples, and ask before photographing people in the lanes. Renuka Lake is a wetland protected under the Ramsar Convention as well as a pilgrimage site — no soap in the water, no feeding the fish with packaged snacks. On Churdhar, leave nothing behind at the shrine.

From Nahan the road climbs north into the higher hills. Shimla, four to five hours away, is the other side of the same history — the British summer capital rather than a raja's town, larger, busier, and full of its own stories.