Kullu () is a

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough cou ...

town that serves as the administrative headquarters of the

Kullu district Kullu () is a List of districts in India, district in Himachal Pradesh, India. It borders Shimla district to the south, Mandi district, Mandi and Kangra district, Kangra districts to the west, Kinnaur district, Kinnaur to the east and the Lahau ...

of the

Indian state India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, for a total of 36 subnational entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into 800 districts and smaller administrative divisions by the respe ...

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; Sanskrit: ''himācāl prādes;'' "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a States and union territories of India, state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen Indian Himalayan ...

. It is located on the banks of the Beas River in the

Kullu Valley Kullu Valley is a broad open valley in Himachal Pradesh, India, formed by the Beas River between Manali and Larji. This valley is famous for its temples, beauty and its majestic hills covered with pine and deodar forest and sprawling apple or ...

about north of the airport at Bhuntar, Kullu.

is a broad open

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

formed by the Beas River between Manali and Larji. This valley is known for its temples and its hills covered with

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

and deodar forest and sprawling apple orchards. The course of the Beas river, originating from Beas Kund presents a succession of hillside settlements studded amongst forests of deodar that tower above pine trees on the lower rocky ridges. Together with the river Beas running through the valley, the town of Kullu offers truly magnificent views. Kullu Valley is sandwiched between the

Pir Panjal The Pir Panjal Range ( ; ) is a range of mountains in the Lower Himalayan region located in the Western Himalayas of northern Indian subcontinent. It runs southeast to northwest between the Beas and Neelam/Kishanganga rivers, in the Indi ...

, Lower Himalayan and Great Himalayan Ranges, located in Northern India, 497 k.m. away from the capital of India.

History

Historical references about the Kullu valley date back to ancient Hindu literary works of

Ramayana The ''Ramayana'' (; ), also known as ''Valmiki Ramayana'', as traditionally attributed to Valmiki, is a smriti text (also described as a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic) from ancient India, one of the two important epics ...

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; , , ) is one of the two major Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epics of ancient India revered as Smriti texts in Hinduism, the other being the ''Ramayana, Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the events and aftermath of the Kuru ...

and the

Puranas Puranas (Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature
(1995 Editio ...

. During Vedic period several small republics known as "

Janapada The Janapadas () () (c. 1100–600 BCE) were the realms, republics (ganapada) and kingdoms (sāmarājya) of the Vedic period in the Indian subcontinent. The Vedic period reaches from the late Bronze Age into the Iron Age: from about 1500 BCE to ...

" existed which were later conquered by the

Nanda Empire The Nanda Empire was a vast empire that governed in Magadha and Gangetic plains with an enormous geographical reach in 4th-century BCE northeastern India, with some accounts suggesting existence as far back as the 5th century BCE. The Nandas ...

Mauryan Empire The Maurya Empire was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in South Asia with its power base in Magadha. Founded by Chandragupta Maurya around c. 320 BCE, it existed in loose-knit fashion until 185 BCE. The primary sourc ...

Shunga Empire The Shunga Empire (IAST: ') was a ruling entity centred around Magadha and controlled most of the northern Indian subcontinent from around 187 to 75 BCE. The dynasty was established by Pushyamitra, after taking the throne of Magadha from the ...

Gupta Empire The Gupta Empire was an Indian empire during the classical period of the Indian subcontinent which existed from the mid 3rd century to mid 6th century CE. At its zenith, the dynasty ruled over an empire that spanned much of the northern Indian ...

Pala Dynasty The Pāla Empire was the empire ruled by the Pala dynasty, ("protector" in Sanskrit) a medieval Indian dynasty which ruled the kingdom of Gauda. The empire was founded with the election of Gopāla by the chiefs of Gauda in late eighth centu ...

and Karkoṭa Empire. After a brief period of supremacy by King

Harshavardhana Harshavardhana (Sanskrit: हर्षवर्धन; 4 June 590 – 647) was an emperor of Kannauj from April 606 until his death in 647. He was the king of Thanesar who had defeated the Alchon Huns, and the younger brother of Rajya ...

, the region was once again divided into several local powers headed by chieftains, including some

Rajput Rājpūt (, from Sanskrit ''rājaputra'' meaning "son of a king"), also called Thākur (), is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating fro ...

principalities, these principalities were later conquered by

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an Early modern period, early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to ...

Maratha Empire The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern India, early modern polity in the Indian subcontinent. It comprised the realms of the Peshwa and four major independent List of Maratha dynasties and states, Ma ...

Sikh Empire The Sikh Empire was a regional power based in the Punjab, Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent. It existed from 1799, when Maharaja Ranjit Singh captured Lahore, to 1849, when it was defeated and conquered by the East India Company, Br ...

. The Buddhist pilgrim monk

Xuanzang Xuanzang (; ; 6 April 6025 February 664), born Chen Hui or Chen Yi (), also known by his Sanskrit Dharma name Mokṣadeva, was a 7th-century Chinese Bhikkhu, Buddhist monk, scholar, traveller, and translator. He is known for the epoch-making ...

visited the Kullu Valley in 634 or 635 CE. He described it as a fertile region completely surrounded by mountains, about 3,000 ''li'' in circuit, with a capital 14 or 15 ''li'' in circumference. There were some twenty Buddhist monasteries, with about 1,000 monks, most of whom following the Mahayana tradition. There were also some fifteen Hindu temples, and both faiths occupied the region. There were meditation caves near the mountain passes inhabited by both Buddhist and Hindus. The country is said to have produced gold, silver, red copper, crystal lenses and bell-metal.

Geography

Beas Valley - Palchan - Kullu 2014-05-10 2275

Kullu town has an average elevation of . It lies on the bank of Beas River.

Demographics

India

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, Kullu had a population of 437,903. The male population in Kullu is 225,452 whereas the female population is 212,451. The sex ratio of Kullu is 942 females per 1000 males, which is higher than the national sex ratio. The average literacy rate of Kullu is 79.4%; the male literacy rate is 87.39% and the female literacy rate is 70.91%. The people speak the Kullui language.

Administrative

Kullu town, as the administrative headquarters of Kullu district, has the offices of Deputy Commissioner, the Superintendent of Police and the District courts.

References

External links