Chhachhrauli

Tehsil Chhchhrauli, District Yamunanagar, Haryana.

Chhachhrauli is little town in the state of Haryana near Karnal. It was once the capital of one of the India's 562 princely states. The states have the forts palaces and samadhis of the ruling family, which talks about the gone glory of this small town of Chachhrauli in Haryana. These forts and palaces now have various government offices in them.

The Raja of Kalsia built a big, sprawling fort for himself, which comprised of a throne room, a khazana (treasury), and reception rooms. The whole of the fort was painted with murals. The artists had painted every part of the wall of the fort with designs of flowers, birds, and court scenes of Indian kings and to some great extent incongruous modern views of railway stations, trains, churches and Europeans. The mural painters of Chachhrauli most probably had not actually seen churches and railway bridges, so they based their art on illustrations from books and magazines.

The Kalsia family donated the fort to the town of Chachhrauli for its own use in 1940.T he local authorities established two schools, the law courts and several municipal offices inside the fort. The fort again became alive, this time with children's voices and office gossip and (almost certainly), legal battles.

The fort and its murals were in a fairly good state of preservation till some time ago. But over the years, the walls are crumbling down. We are also loosing the mural paintings on the walls of the fort. The dilapidation of the Chachhrauli Fort is taking along with it a very small piece of India's history.