Simla, a town and the summer capital of British India, in a Himalayan district of the same name belonging to the Ambala division of the Punjaub, 170 m. N. of Delhi; lat. 31° 7' N., lon. 77° 8' E.; pop. in the height of the season, about 15,000 natives and 1,500 Europeans. It stands on a long and lofty ridge 7,000 ft. above the sea, amid grand forest and mountain scenery, a few miles S. of the Sutlej. The British government purchased the station from the native state of Keonthal about 1822, and founded Simla as a sanitarium. The climate is for the most part cool, exhilarating, and healthful, though there is a heavy rainfall at the time of the S. W. monsoon, and the difficulties of drainage are considerable. Since 1866 the supreme government of India has been administered during the summer months from Simla, whither the viceroy and all the chief officials retire from Calcutta early in the hot season. It is about 60 m. N. E. of the Punjaub and Delhi railway. The town is an organized municipality, governed by a committee of native and foreign residents.