History of Uttarakhand

Initially, it was believed that due to harsh climate and mountainous terrain, this was a barren and uninhabited land. But after various excavations and the study of ancient literature, it is now established that the history of Uttarakhand goes back to Stone Age. Evidences of Stone Age settlements have been found in various parts of Kumaon and Garhwal, particularly notable are the rock shelters at Lakhudyar, Almora.

In the Puranas, Uttarakhand was the ancient term for the central Indian Himalayas. The region is mentioned in early Hindu texts as the combined region of Kedarkhand and Manaskhand. Its peaks and valleys were referred to as the Svarga loka: a temporary abode of the righteous, and the source of the Ganges.

Uttarakhand is popularly referred to as "the land of the gods" (Devbhumi) owing to its huge number of Hindu pilgrimage sites.

The Pauravas, Kushanas, Kunindas, Guptas, Katyuris, Palas, Chands, Parmars (or Panwars), and the British have ruled the state by turns.^[1]

The region was initially habitated by Kolarian people, some scholars believed that these people were outcast by their tribes. Later, Indo - Aryans tribe began to arrive from Central Asia. The prominent among them were the Khasas, Khasas later fought with the aboriginals and finally defeated them. Khasa men married the local women in large numbers, this intermixing continued over centuries and is now verified by ancestry tests.^[2]

The region formed a part of the Uttarakuru Kingdom during the Vedic age of Ancient India. It is believed that the rishi (sage) Vyasa wrote the Mahabharata somewhere in present-day Uttarakhand, since the Pandavas are believed to have travelled (and camped) in the region.

Among the first major dynasties of the Garhwal and Kumaon Kingdoms were the Kunindas in the 2nd century BC, who practised an early form of Shaivism and traded salt with western Tibet. Ashokan edicts at Kalsi show the early presence of Buddhism in this regionGarhwal Kito have settled in the northern highlands and elsewhere in the region, are believed to be the ancestors of the present-day Bhotiya, Raji, Buksha, and Tharu peoples.^[3]

Kumaon prospered under the Chand kings from the eighth to the 18th centuries. The Pahari School of Miniature Painting was also flourished in the region between the 18th to the 19th centuries.[3]

Nepal's expanding Gurkha Empire overran Almora, the seat of the Kumaon Kingdom, in 1791and in 1804 the Garhwal Kingdom also fell to the Gurkhas. With the end of the Anglo-Nepalese War in 1816, the western Garhwal Kingdom was re-established in Tehri; eastern Garhwal and Kumaon were ceded to the British in accordance with the Treaty of Sugauli. Jaunsar-Bawar was part of the Sirmur kingdom, primarily as a buffer between Sirmur and Garhwal. Fateh Shah seized the region and Dehradun from the Sirmur kings, the Jaunsari and the local pahari; Sirmaur-era words are still found in the Jaunsari language. In 1829, Jaunsar-Bawar was incorporated into the Chakrata tehsil; it had been part of the Punjab state of Sirmur until the British conquered it and Dehradun after the 1814 war with the Gurkhas.^[4] The region was known as Jaunsar-Bawar before the establishment of a British Indian Army cantonment in 1866, and the name continued in popular use until the early 20th century.^[5] Although Western Hindi is popular in most of the neighbouring hill areas, Jaunsari (a Western Pahari language) is spoken by most people in the region.^[6]