Patiala
— — a royal city that wears its court lightly.
Not only on a wall.
“A former princely capital in southeastern Punjab, founded in the eighteenth century by Baba Ala Singh of the Phulkian misl. The Qila Mubarak fort still anchors the old city, and the Sheesh Mahal palace holds a small medal museum a short drive away. Patiala lends its name to a turban tied tall, a wide salwar cut, and a generously poured peg of whisky, all three still in everyday use.
Patiala, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Patiala sits in southeastern Punjab, about sixty-five kilometres south of Chandigarh on the road to Bathinda. The city was founded in 1763 by Baba Ala Singh of the Phulkian Sikh confederacy and served as the capital of the princely state of Patiala under British paramountcy until accession to India in 1948. The 2011 census recorded a city population of about 446,000. The Maharaja's court left an unusually deep cultural mark: dress styles, drinking measures, classical music, and cricket all bear Patiala names that are still in use across the subcontinent.
Qila Mubarak, the central fort of the old city, was begun by Ala Singh in 1763 and added to by his successors over the next century. The complex covers about ten acres and includes the inner Qila Androon with its painted chambers, the larger outer enclosure, and the Darbar Hall. UNESCO placed the fort on its tentative World Heritage list in 2014. Restoration work continues in phases under the Punjab government, with portions of the Qila Androon now open to the public during the cooler months of the year.
The Patiala royal house cultivated the arts on a scale unusual for a princely state. The Patiala gharana of Hindustani classical music traces to musicians at the court in the late nineteenth century, with Bade Ghulam Ali Khan its best-known twentieth-century voice. The annual Basant Panchami celebrations at the Qila, the spring kite festival that opens the new agricultural year in Punjab, still draw the city out into the streets in yellow. The royal Patiala Necklace, commissioned in 1928 from Cartier, was for a time the most valuable piece of jewellery ever made.