Visit to Famous City of Patiala in the State of Punjab in India

State of Punjab in India is full of many historical cities in India. Patiala is one of such cities. I had an opportunity to visit it once during the last winter of the year 2007. We had visited Patiala to attend the marriage of the son of one of my friends. It has a population of around 400000 people and is the district headquarters.

Patiala is well connected by air and the nearest airport of Chandigarh is only 37 miles away. The nearest railway station is Ambala, which is around 24 miles away. This historical town was established by Sikh Baba Alasinha in the year 1753. Patiala was the independent Sikh rule in the past. There are many sites seeing places to be seen here. The most vital of all is Motibag Palace. This palace was built by Narendrasinha, the king of Patiala. There are many beautiful gardens and water fountains all around this palace. There is also a famous Shishmahal in this palace. This section of the palace is built from glass only. The tourists have to remove their regular shoes and wear the rubber slippers supplied by the palace management. There are most beautiful pictures of ancient times painted on all the walls of the palace. This palace is really looking very beautiful during the late evening hours due to the light decorations made on it. The next place is Motibagh Gurudwara. This gurudwara was built by Sikh Guru Tegbahadur in the design of Shishmahal. The Shishmahal museum, located outside the Shishmahal, is the next place that must be visited. This museum has many rare specimens pertaining to the ancient history of the kings of Punjab. Fatehgadh Sahib Gurudwara is built at Patiala at the same place where the two young sons of the Sikh Guru Govindsinh were buried alive in a brick wall by the Mogul ruler Bahadursha zafar. It has become a very holy place of pilgrimage for the entire Sikh religion due to this immortal sacrifice. The Mubarak fort and the Patiala forts are the palaces, where the kings of Patiala stayed. All the weapons used by the kings of Patiala are kept here at this palace. The fort of Bahadurgadh built by King Karansingh of Patiala is really worth seeing as it reflects the glory of ancient Sikh architecture.

There are few near bye places that can be visited from Patiala. Bhatinda is around 100 miles away from Patiala. This most ancient city of Punjab was built by the king Bhattirao. Mogul ruler Mohammad Ghori attacked this city for the first time in the eighteenth century. The fort of Bhatinda is the next place to be visited. The first lady ruler in India, Razia Begum, was kept here in the prison and was hanged till death, later on at this fort. The historical city of Rupar is located around 24 miles away from Patiala. During digging by the archeological department, many Hindu temples and the Muslim Masjids have been found here from under the ground. These are said to be around 4000 years old.

Patiala is situated at around 140 miles from Delhi, 36 miles from Kalka, and 100 miles from the famous hill station of Simla. Though, many tourists are not visiting this city of Patiala, it has many historical monuments that can surely attract the visitors, who are interested in such historical and ancient monuments. There are few nice hotels available here at Patiala. These hotels are Hotel Green, and the Hotel Drive Inn. Both these hotels are reasonably good and charge around Rs.1600 ($40) per day for a nice double room with 24 hours check out facility. These charges are excluding all meals. The native Punjabi food delicacies are really very tasty here and also available at very reasonable charges. If you happen to move through Punjab during your visit to India, it would be certainly a good idea to visit this ancient and historical city of Punjab for couple of days.