Grandeur of Indian Institute of Advanced Studies (Viceregal Lodge, Shimla) | By Karan Gupta

Hey Folks, I am sharing this particular photo journey so that we have a close look on one of the marvelous structure and campus in Shimla. Through my lens I have some clicks inside the institute as well, which will well describe the royal lifestyle Britishers enjoyed. The literature below has been taken from official website.

Once in Shimla, Indian Institute of advanced studies is a must visit place for anyone. An awesome place for architecture lovers as well as folks you love to be around natural beauty. 

You can observe erstwhile British Architecture quite closely. The need of such flamboyant premises was felt during earlier years of Shimla being chosen as summer capital by Britishers. It took six decades since 1823 when finally the Viceroy lodge saw the day of light when Lord Lytton and Observatory Hill was decided as Viceregal residence address.

Lord Dufferin took keen interest in construction of Viceregal residence and persuaded Secretary of State of India, Lord Churchill to sanction the project. There were two houses for Viceregal and this one was for summers. The main one is current President's House in capital city of India, Delhi.

The construction began this huge campus started in 1886 and was done very fast. During 1888, Lady & Lord Dufferin officially moved into Viceregal Lodge in Shimla. It's located on one of the of the high peaks in Shimla town. Now it's popularly known as Indian Institute of Advanced Studies.  

There is huge green area around Indian Institute of Advanced Studies and very well maintained. There are different lawns and gardens maintained with different themes having multi-colored flowers.  

Above photograph shows multi-level gardens on the back side of  Viceregal lodge. This is one of the favorite places for University students. This place is quite close to Himachal Pradesh University and students like to visit this place for change. 

As time passed new additions and modifications were constantly made in this campus. In fact, this is one of the well maintained buildings in Shimla, which was built in British era. One of the main attractions even today is the wood work inside the Viceregal Lodge. Massive amount of teak Wood was shipped from Burma which was supplemented along with Local Deodar ( Cedar) & Walnut Wood.

The huge estate was spread over 330+ Acres. With time the size has reduced to 110 Acres now. The Lodge hosted the famous 'Simla Conference' between 25 June to 14 July 1945.

Hope you enjoyed it...