About the Book:

The present Mandi town was the capital of the erstwhile Mandi State and it was set up by Raja Ajbar Sen in the year 1527 CE. Since ancient times this town was an important trade and commercial centre between Indian plains and Ladakh, Yarkand and Central Asia. Mandi is also known for its old temples, built along the Beas and Suketi river fronts, and mostly dedicated to  Shiva and the Shakti and their enormous range of exquisite carvings attract the eyes of any beholder and its surroundings present a panoramic view of the town thereby earning the title of ‘Varanasi of the Hills’ or ‘Chhoti Kashi of Himachal’.

This one-time capital of the princely state is a developing town that still retains much of its original charm and character. Here an attempt has been made to illustrate the important features by way of photographs and line-drawings of the monumental heritage preserved by the local inhabitants of the area for centuries which will serve as a guide for serious scholars for carrying out detailed research in the respective field on the one hand and would be found useful for the lay visitors to the town on the other

About the Authors:

B M Pande served for more than 35 years in the Archaeological Survey of India and retired as Director (Archaeology) in 1996. He had carried out major conservation works on monuments and sites in different states and had extensively worked on Himalayan and trans-Himalayan monuments and archaeological sites. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, London; associated with the Indian National Science Academy and was also a visiting faculty in the School of Planning & Architecture, New Delhi.

Chhering Dorje joined ASI as Deputy Superintending Archaeologist in May 1979 and retired in 2013 as Joint Director General. He had the experience of working in different fields of archaeology particularly in conservation and heritage management projects in the different states. He had a number of articles and papers published in research journals. He was also a Fellow of Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla (2016-17).