The Taal - A Himalayan Town with beautiful & not so touristy lake along with a stunning hike to ruins of a fort in Himachal Pradesh

Recently I was in Himachal and driving around Hamirpur region. I have spent most of my childhood in different villages/towns of Hamirpur. During this visit, I realised that how fortunate I was to spend my childhood around such beautiful places. During that time, I took that for granted. Taal is such place, which used to be a small town on my way from home to college. But this time, it came across very differently. This time, Taal came across as a town which has a beautiful lake and surroundings rich of natural resources & heritage. This blogpost shares more about this beautiful town and what all makes it special. 

Many ancient heritage things of the time of Maharaja Sansar Chand are located in the district Hamirpur, which is now being lost in the pages of the past. One such historical site is Taal. Taal is a hindi word for lake. The name of the village is because of the royal lake at this place. There is an ancient pond in Tal town, and the town is about 3 km from Tikkar on Shimla-Kangra National Highway. This used to be royal pond of Maharaja Sansar Chand and was meant for royal family only. There is also a place called Mahal nearby. In between, ruins of the Palace (Mahal) can be seen. There are various stories associated with this palace. 

The ruins of the Mahal Moriyan are also situated after a hike around Taal town and when you reach the top of the Mahal ruins, you see a village called Mahal across a river. Name of this river is called Kunah khadd. River in himachal is called khadd. There is hardly any Mahal visible now. Only few walls of the palace can be seen in form of ruins and there is grass all across. This space is not maintained by anyone but there are interesting stories about Mahal Moriyan in Hamirpur. 

According to one of the tails, there is gold under this palace. Locals call this place Gadh. In past, anyone who has tried to dig land around this Mahal is either beaten by locals or police. Not sure how true all these stories are but almost everyone around this place believes that there is gold under the Mahal. Some also believe that if anyone would try to get that gold, it would bring them bad luck. 

To reach the fort, one has to leave the main road and go into the forests. The fort Mahal Moriyan is not visible from the road. 

Kunah Khadd is also a beautiful place to spend time around fresh water flowing through streams. We didn't have time this time, otherwise we would have loved to walk down to the river and spend some time there. 

Mahal Moriyan had two battles in this fort. For the first time, the Gurkhas were defeated by Raja Sansar Chand's army, but the defeat second time took away a lot of things from the king. The Kangra Fort of Raja Sansar Chand also got into the hands of Gurkhas in this battle.

King Ishwar Sen of Sundernagar was in jail of Sansar Chand-II and the Gurkhas rescued him as well. Sansar Chand kept Ishwar Sen in captivity in the fortress of Nadaun at Amtar for twelve years. There is another story popular amongst locals that fort of Mahal Moriya kept burning for the whole six months and that's why gold would have been left in such a fire. Mahashivaratri of Mandi also has a deep connection with this fort, it seems.

During my childhood, Taal used to be famous for treatment of bone problems.  Lot of people from Himachal and other states used to come to Rumi Vaid for treatment. Rumi Vaid was famous for taking care of any kind of bone issues. Not sure if next generation is continuing to treat that well. 

Hamirpur is not a region where tourists come for exploration but there can be some pretty interesting things to explore. Hopefully we will bring more stuff from Hamirpur region of Himachal Pradesh. 

Here is a sensationlised video about treasure of Mahal Moriyan in Hamirpur region of Himachal Pradesh -