The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c15.112

v1.c15.112

From near Darjeeling until near Hardwār the foothills of the Himālaya for five hundred miles belong to the Gurkha kingdom of Nepāl, whose capital is Kātmāndu. Notwithstanding its close connexion with the Indian army, Nepāl is counted as an independent state, over which British suzerainty does not formally extend. From Hardwār, however, for seven hundred miles north-westward to where the Indus breaks from the mountains, the foothills belong to the Empire, and upon them stand, high above the plain, a series of hill stations. The first of these stations is Mussoorie, not far northward of Hardwār. Mussoorie is about a mile above sea level. Close by, but lower down, is Dehra Dūn, the headquarters of the Gurkha Rifles. Hereabouts the Tarai, an elephant-haunted jungle belt, follows the foothills, separating them from the cultivated plains. A hundred miles farther along the mountain brink is Simla, the summer capital of India, high on a spur above the divide between the Indus and the Ganges. The snow often rests on the ground in the winter at Simla.