Wake-up call in the town of Chamba in Himachal Pradesh is at 5am, to the sound of a laughing thrush just outside my room at the Chamba Guesthouse. This is echoed almost immediately, and surreally, by raucous laughter emanating from the Chaugan — an expansive maidan that is the pride of this hill town — and reverberating off the Dhauladhar peaks that surround the capital of this former hill kingdom, located on the right bank of the Ravi river. 

Once the laughing club of Chamba is done with its morning ritual, a travelling sadhu in a resplendent gold foil crown bedecked with peacock feathers, who is spending a few days in the garden of my guesthouse, begins his ablutions with much hacking and spitting. Then follow the sounds of a hideously discordant chorus — at about 6am, the morning bhajan session begins at the Hari Rai temple just next door to the guesthouse.

I’m so wide awake by now, I rise and amble along to the temple — and discover the first of Chamba’s many unsung wonders. A life-size, bronze, four-faced statue of Vishnu, one face showing him as the boar-headed Varaha, another as the lion-headed Narasimha, and the other two embodying his fierce and peaceable forms. The statue, I learn, has a History — though tucked away in this obscure corner of Himachal, its awesome perfection had attracted the attention of international art thieves, and it was stolen from the temple one night in the early 1970s. Months later, it was recovered during a random check of a large crate at the Bombay docks and triumphantly carted back to Chamba. The Vishnu Vaikuntha statue was made in the 9th or 10th century, at the time the city was founded, by an unknown local genius, but Chamba’s once-famed metal sculpting tradition now seems to have found a new direction — in the bazaar I spot a sign proclaiming “Master Sculptor and Metal Casting — Superior Dentures Made Here”.

The Hari Rai temple offers the first glimpse of Chamba’s rich 1,000-year-old history, belied by the sleepy air of this town which is usually bypassed by tourists in favour of nearby Dalhousie, or other more exotic locales in Himachal. Perhaps for this reason, the town retains a certain chaotic charm, with locals lounging on the Chaugan in or along the banks of the Raavi, eating kachaloo chaat or til chikki. Winding roads lead uphill through the market and emerge at the majestic Lakshmi Narayan temple complex, patronised by the kings of Chamba and comprising six stone temples constructed in the classical nagara style, three dedicated to Shiva and three to Vishnu. The town has other impressive stone temples scattered throughout, as well as two palaces of the ruling family, the Rang Mahal and the Akhand Chandi Palace, and the impressive Bhuri Singh Museum, which houses a superb collection of Pahari miniatures, copper and stone inscriptions, examples of Chamba’s wood-carving tradition and fine stone and metal sculptures.

While the town of Chamba has many hidden surprises, the region’s treasures can only be discovered by exploring the wider area that once comprised the territory of Chamba state, an area that was historically bounded by Buddhist lands to the north-east, Kashmir to the north-west and the Punjab plains to the south. A three-hour drive eastwards brings you to the town of Bharmaur and to the beginning of the history of Chamba state. The historical record indicates that the lineage of the Chamba rulers was established in Bharmaur, the ancient capital of the state, by a ruler called Meruvarman who ruled in circa 700 AD. Located at 7,000ft, Bharmaur is a tiny town, snow-covered for six months of the year and ringed by snow-clad peaks. Its centrepiece is the majestic Chaurasi temple complex, which houses a number of stone temples along with a jewel-like wooden temple dedicated to Laksana Devi — the goddess Durga slaying the buffalo demon Mahisasura. This small but exquisitely carved temple is perhaps the oldest standing wooden structure in all of India, with parts of it dating to the early 8th century. The external doorway in particular abounds with the most exquisite carving done in a post-Gupta style, with flying gandharvas, amorous couples and door guardians inhabiting every inch of the triangular pediment, arched niches, lintels and door jambs, interspersed with elaborate vegetal scrolls.

The other prominent temples in the complex are dedicated to Shiva, Ganesha and Narasimha respectively, and the latter two house bold and magnificent bronze images of these two deities, which some scholars have argued might date from the time of Meruvarman. Outside the Shiva temple, under a peaked wooden awning, resides a life-sized bronze Nandi, standing on an inscribed pedestal which attributes its making to a craftsman named Gugga for King Meruvarman. This bull is invariably described as ‘brazen’ in the scholarly literature, as no other adjective seems to fit its bold and cheery countenance. The curvaceous image of Durga killing the buffalo-demon in the Laksana Devi temple too carries a similar inscription, a testament to the raja who put this isolated hamlet on the map of North India.

The Chaurasi temple complex hardly gets any visitors from outside the region and is blissfully tranquil — until school-closing time when dozens of scrubbed and chattering children from the nearby government schools spill into the complex to play and run around the temples. Twice a year, in the summer and winter, the town is also host to an influx of semi-nomadic gaddi shepherds and their enormous herds of goats and sheep, who spend a few days in town on their centuries-old migratory route between their winter grazing grounds in the Kangra Valley and their summer pastures across the Dhauladhar and into Lahaul. Bharmaur is the main town of Gadderan — the name of this region in the upper valleys of the Ravi and Budil rivers — which is home to the gaddi community. Seeing the Chaurasi complex and even the interior of temples flooded with their long-haired and colour-coded livestock is an enchanting sight.
Following a gaddi migratory route from Bharmaur over the Chobia pass, one reaches the small town of Udaipur, located in Lahaul district in Himachal. The landscape, once you cross the Dhauladhar mountains, is stark and inhospitable but breathtaking in its severe and arid beauty. Here you find the small wooden Mirkula Devi temple, its modest exterior bristling with tridents and flags. Once you enter, how-ever, space seems to expand miraculously as your eyes are drawn to the elaborately carved panels that ring the ceiling of the mandapa area and flank the windows and doorway of the sanctum. The temple is dedicated to Kali, and has gone through several phases of reconstruction and adaptive use. The iconography of the carvings in the Mirkula Devi temple indicate periods of worship as both a Hindu and a Buddhist shrine, while the style of the carvings indicates a blend of the Chamba and Kashmiri traditions. The elaborate doorway — the oldest part of the temple and dating to circa the 10th century — has seven exquisitely carved sakhas or bands, alternating between scrollwork and figures, including a magnificent series portraying the incarnations of Vishnu. The ceiling panels are equally detailed, with figures including a sixteen-armed dancing Shiva shown with Parvati, Ganesha, Kartikeya and Nandi, as well as a complex narrative panel of the Buddha subduing Mara and his army. Even today both Hindus and Buddhists worship at the temple.

Approximately midway on the road between Chamba and Bharmaur, at a short tangent from the main road, lies the picturesque gaddi village of Chhatrarhi, home to the wood and stone Shakti Devi temple. The inner core of the temple dates, like the Laksana Devi temple at Bharmaur, to the eighth century and the brass image of Shakti Devi too bears an inscription to King Meruvarman and his prodigious sculptor Gugga. While this temple has later periods of reconstruction and repair, the wooden pillars in the mandapa, the ceiling and the sanctum doorway are part of this ancient core. The doorway has six sakhas, of which the two innermost ones have two yakshas at the base emitting creepers from their mouths that fill up the entire surface of the band, while the other sakhas consist of floral and figurative bands. The ceiling and pillars are elaborately carved with lotuses, vases of plenty and flying gandharvas, and the wonderful state of preservation of these carvings allow one to marvel at their three-dimensionality and detail. The walls of the circumambulatory were filled in with plaster in about the 18th century and covered with mythological paintings in the later Pahari style of Chamba. The village of Chhatrarhi is also notable for its many stone panihars (carved fountain slabs) that are still in situ at water sources throughout the village. These panihars are unique to the Chamba region, and are elaborately carved with a range of depictions, such as the water-god Varuna, heraldic animals, geometrical designs and the figures of patrons.

The three wooden temples of Chamba state — the Laksana Devi, Shakti Devi and Mirkula Devi — are the preeminent examples of the ancient art of wood carving in Himachal Pradesh. Going from Chamba to Chhatrarhi, Bharmaur and Udaipur to see them takes the traveller on a magical journey through the history of this erstwhile kingdom. Through landscape that changes from lush and verdant to arid and majestic, encountering along the way roaring rivers, unspoilt wilderness, clumps of wild nargis, tiny birds in brilliant reds and yellows, and always, the open and hospitable local inhabitants of these valleys, for whom the sight of a visitor remains a novelty.

The information

Getting there
> Chamba is 122km (4hr) from Pathankot. The best way to get to Pathankot is to take the overnight Jammu Mail (Rs 774 on 2A) from Delhi.
> Bharmaur is 65km (3hr) from Chamba. There is a regular bus service.
> Chhatrarhi is 40km (1.5hr) from Chamba and is connected by a regular bus service to Chamba and Bharmaur.
> Udaipur is a 4-day trek over the Chobia pass from Chamba. Alternatively, you can take the road via Manali and the Rohtang Pass (12hr).

Where to stay
> Chamba: The HPTDC Hotel Iravati (Rs 700-1,500; 01899-222671) is a large hotel in the middle of town with spacious and reasonably clean rooms. Hotel Aroma Palace (Rs 500-3,000; 225577) is another comfortable option. If you don’t mind staying a distance away head to Orchard Hut (Rs 450-900; 222507, 226764, in Rulpuli village, about 12km from Chamba, where you can stay in comfortable traditional rooms in the middle of orchards and fields. It even has a pool!
> Bharmaur: The HPPWD Rest House (Rs 250; 01895-225003) is centrally located with seven rooms, attached bathrooms, and serves meals.
> Udaipur: The only place to stay here is the HPPWD Guest House (Rs 250; 01909-222237).

Literature
Those interested in reading about the dating and stylistic analysis of the wooden temples of Chamba should try to get hold of the now out of print book by the German scholar Hermann Goetz, The Early Wooden Temples of Chamba, published in 1955. For a broader overview of the stone and wooden temples of Himachal Pradesh, read O.C. Handa’s Temple Architecture of the Western Himalaya: Wooden Temples, and Laxman S. Thakur’s The Architectural Heritage of Himachal Pradesh: Origin and Development of Temple Styles.