Symbolising joyous buoyancy and royal demeanour, Patiala presents a beautiful banquet of the life style even to a casual visitor to the city. The 'City of palaces and museums' is a brilliant spectrum of Rajpoot, Mughal and Punjabi cultures. A fine blend of modernity and a tradition and synthesis of all whatever is beautiful in form and bold in spirit conjure up a vision called Patiala.

An erstwhile princely state and capital of PEPSU, it is one of the district head quarters of Punjab. It is situated in one of the geographically well defined regions of Punjab known as the Malwa. Malwa comprises the area between the Sutlej and the Ghaggar and is surrounded by Himachal Pradesh in the north-west.

Patiala is a centre of education. The city is a consumer goods emporium. Punjabi shoes, golden and silver, shoes embroidered in several patterns and colours to match dresses, silver and gold embroidered "naalas" (or pyjama strings), parandhas (women weave them at the end of their plaits or braids) of varied shapes and designs but uniformly beautiful hand-woven head coverings, Phulkaris which can only be described as embroidered epics. Patiala is well-known for its royal cuisine-both vegetarian and non- vegetarian.

Patiala is 26 km to the south-west of Rajpura (located on National Highway 1). Daily bus service is available to Delhi and other towns in Punjab and neighbouring states. On rail network, Patiala is on the branch line to Bhatinda and Firozpur. A route west from Patiala goes through a series of small market towns to Bhatinda. At Nidampur, on the bank of the Ghaggar Canal, is Punjab Tourism's Chandni Tourist Complex.

General Information
Location:
Patiala district is one of the famous princely states of erstwhile Punjab. forming the south-eastern part of the state. It lies between 29 49’ and 30 47’ north latitude and 75 58’ and 76 54' east longitude.

It is surrounded by Fatehgarh Sahib, Rupnagar District and Union Territory of Chandigarh in the north, Fatehgarh Sahib and Sangrur district in the west, Ambala and Kurukshetra District of neighbouring state of Haryana in the east and Kaithal district of Haryana in the south.

Area in Sq. Km. : 3627

Density per Sq.Km. : 419

Population:
Total: 15,21,330
Rural: 10,55,230 (Male: 5,62,858/ Female: 4,92,372)
Urban: 4,66,100 (Male: 2,45,408/ Female: 2,20,692)
Increase in Population : 21.55% ( 1981-1991)

Sex Ratio: Female per 1000 males : 881

Work force:
TOTAL : 4,51,900
a) Male: 4,28,887
b) Female: 23,013

Literacy
a) Rural :4,23,886
b) Urban :2,96,801