Is an archaeological marvel hiding near Chandigarh?
- Shariq Majeed
- TNNUpdated: Jan 27, 2026, 16:55 IST IST
Walk down the narrow lanes of this small town — located about 45km southwest of Chandigarh — and you’d find it hard to believe that Chinese scholar Hiuen Tsang trod these very paths some 1,300 years ago. Or that north Indian ruler Prithviraj Chauhan had once passed this way at the head of his army.
It’s as if history no longer felt welcome here and moved out, mournful and uncared for. But there was a time when history ebbed and flowed through its narrow lanes. Sirhind — or Sar-i-Hind, the crown of India — was, after all, the last major outpost before invaders reached the Yamuna. Temples of the Hindu Shahis — who made Sirhind their capital, with its grandeur said to be second only to Lahore’s — still stand south of Islamabad, the oldest surviving temples in Pakistan.
It’s as if history no longer felt welcome here and moved out, mournful and uncared for. But there was a time when history ebbed and flowed through its narrow lanes. Sirhind — or Sar-i-Hind, the crown of India — was, after all, the last major outpost before invaders reached the Yamuna. Temples of the Hindu Shahis — who made Sirhind their capital, with its grandeur said to be second only to Lahore’s — still stand south of Islamabad, the oldest surviving temples in Pakistan.
