Mansions In The Mountains

Gabled roofs, Gothic windows and English weathervanes make Garli in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, a truly surreal heritage village.

- Anurag Mallick

A Shiva Shambhu or wandering minstrel in a red and black turban adorned with feathers walked in, sounding his bell, just as we were being ushered into Chateau Garli with drumbeats, tilaks and a shower of flower petals. For a moment, no one was sure whether the itinerant was part of the arriving group or the welcoming party. And then as suddenly, like a mirage, he vanished into the afternoon haze.

Though the harsh sun had obscured the surrounding Dhauladhar range, Garli’s presence here seemed equally surprising and incongruous. We looked around in disbelief at the European-style mansions with gabled roofs, Gothic windows and ornate weather vanes, wondering how such a place could exist deep in the heart of Himachal Pradesh. It was only after the refreshing mint cooler went down our parched throats and the drumbeats stopped that we knew it was real.

In a dark, sunless room, with the only light emanating from a red chandelier, our host, Yatish Sud, and his friend, Atul Lal, retraced the story of Garli. The mint had been replaced by hops but we swear the surreal setting made Yatish seem like a character in a Quentin Tarantino flick narrating a fantastic tale. The story went like this....

The 52 clans of the hill community of Soods, who find a mention in the Rig Veda with reference to a sacred fire, were driven out of Rajasthan after successive Muslim invasions. They escaped with a band of professionals – cobblers, carpenters, blacksmiths, craftsmen – and settled around the hamlets of Garli and its twin, Pragpur, four kilometres away, and set up a trading town. The location was protected as well as auspicious – surrounded by mountains and the snowy Dhauladhar range on three sides with the Beas river on the fourth and at the tri-junction of three powerful Shakti peetha shrines –Jwalamukhi, Chintpurni and Brajeshwari.