Rampur, Himachal Pradesh

Rampur Bushahr is a city and a municipal council in Shimla district in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. It is 130 km from Shimla well connected with National Highway which passes through Narkanda (attitude 2708m).HistoryThe principality of Bashahr (also known as Bashahar, Bushahar, Bushahr) was once among the largest of the twenty-eight Shimla Hill States under the administration of the British Raj keen to invest on regional and transcontinental trade and exploit Himalayan resources. It bordered on the north with Spiti, on the east with Tibet, on the south with Garhwal, and on the west with Jubbal, Kotkhai, Kumharsain, Kotgarh, and Kullu. Caught in the machinations of the British imperial enterprise, it was subjected to political-cum-economic vicissitudes, acceding to the Indian Union in 1947. On 8 March 1948, along with twenty other princely hill States of Punjab and Shimla, Bashahr signed an agreement which resulted in its inclusion in the Indian State of Himachal Pradesh.Rampur, a small township situated at 1,005 meters on the left bank of the Sutlej, served as Bushahar’s winter capital. Being well connected with major trading routes that joined Indian markets with Central Asia and Tibet, it buzzed with mercantile activity, especially in November during the Lavi fair, the largest trading event in the north Himalayas attracting traders from Kashmir, Ladakh, Yarkand, and the Indian mainland. Concerning the origins of the Rampuri fair, the Census of India (1961) reports: