Ancient
Traditionally the region finds mention in various Hindu scriptures as Kedarkhand being home to the
Garhwali people. Garhwal kingdom was dominated by
Kshatriyas. The
Kuninda Kingdom also flourished around 2nd century BC. Later this region came under the rule of
Katyuri Kings, who ruled unified Kumaon and Garhwal regions from Katyur Valley,
Baijnath, Uttarakhand, starting 6th century AD and eventually fading by the 11th century AD, when they were replaced by
Chand Kings in
Kumaon, The present king of Kumaon is Raja Mahendra Chand of Lamakhet, he is married to Rani Gita Chand of Rina and has three childrens (Rajkumari Aakanksha Chand, Rajkumari Mallika Chand, Rajkumar Aryan Chand) while Garhwal was fragmented into several small principalities.
Huen Tsang, the Chinese traveller, who visited the region around 629 AD, mentions a kingdom of Brahampura in the region.
Garhwal state founded in 823 AD, when Kanakpal, the prince of
Malwa, on his visit to the
Badrinath Temple, met the King Bhanu Pratap, a chieftain of Chandpur Garhi. The King later married his only daughter to the prince and subsequently handed over his kingdom, the fortress town. Kanakpal and his descendants of Panwar Shah dynasty, gradually conquered all the independent fortresses (Garhs) belonging to its 52 small chieftains, and ruled the whole of Garhwal Kingdom for the next 915 years, up to 1804 AD.
Medieval
In 1358, the 37th ruler, Ajay Pal, brought all the minor principalities for the Garhwal region, under his own rule, and founded the Garhwal kingdom, with Dewalgarh as its capital, which he later shifted to Srinagar.Balbhadra Shah (r. 1575–1591), was the first Raja of Garhwal to use the title Shah. The capital was shifted to
Srinagar, Uttarakhand by Mahipat Shah who ascended to the throne in 1622, and further consolidated his rule over most parts of Garhwal, though he died early in 1631, though his seven year old son, Prithvi Shah ascended to the throne after him, the Kingdom was ruled by his Mahipat Shah's wife,
Rani Karnavati for many years to come, during which she successfully defend the kingdom against invaders and repelled an attack of
Mughal army led by Najabat Khan in 1640, and in time received the nickname of 'Nakti Rani' as she used to chop off the noses of any invader to the kingdom, as the Mughal invaders of the period realised.Monuments erected by her still exist in
Dehradun district at Nawada.
Next important ruler was
Fateh Shah, remained the King of Garhwal from 1684 to 1716, and is most known for taking part in the
Battle of Bhangani on 18 September 1688, where combined forces of many Rajas of the
Sivalik Hills (Pahari rajas) fought with
Gobind Singh's army, and lost. During his reign, Sikh Guru and the ex-communicated eldest son of
Har Rai,
Ram Rai settled here, upon recommendations of
Aurangzeb, which eventually led to the establishment of modern town of Dehradun. Fateh Shah died in 1716, and his son Upendra Shah died within a year of ascending to the throne in 1717, subsequently Pradip Shah ascended and his ruled led to rising fortunes of the Kingdom, this in turn attracted invaders, like
Najib-ud-daula Governor of
Saharanpur, who invaded in 1757 along with his
Rohilla Army and captured Dehradun.
Other descendants ruled over Garhwal and the adjacent state of
Tehri, in an uninterrupted line till 1803, when the
Gorkha Kingdom invaded Kumaon and Garhwal. Garhwal forces suffered heavy defeat, and King Pradyuman Shah first escaped from Srinagar to Dehradun and then to Saharanpur to organise forces, but was eventually killed in the Battle of Khurbura (Dehradun) in January 1804; while his brother, Pritam Shah, was taken in captivity to Nepal by the Gurkhas, and the Garhwal chiefs were driven into the plains, as Gurkhas began their 12-year long tyrannical rule. Sudarshan Shah son of the later King, spent the next decade at Jwalapur, near
Haridwar under British protection.
India's Independence
During the
Quit India Movement people from this region actively worked for the independence of India. Ultimately, when the country was declared independent in 1947, the inhabitants of Tehri Riyasat (Garhwal State) started their movement to free themselves from the clutches of the Maharaja.
Due to this movement, the situation became out of his control and it was difficult for him to rule over the region. Consequently the 60th king of Panwar Vansh, Manvendra Shah, the last ruling
Maharaja of the Garhwal Kingdom (1946–1949), accepted the sovereignty of the
Union of India. Tehri Riyasat was merged into the
Garhwal District of
United Provinces (later renamed to
Uttar Pradesh) and was given the status of a new district, the
Tehri garhwal district. Subsequently, on 24 February 1960, the state government separated one its
tehsils which was given the status of a separate district named
Uttarkashi. It is currently part of the
Garhwal Division of the
Uttarakhand state of India which was carved out of
Uttar Pradesh in 2000. Former royal palace of the Maharaja of Tehri Garhwal at
Narendra Nagar, now houses the
Ananda–In the Himalayas spa, estb. 2000.
Under the name of
Greater Nepal, some in Nepal have asked for the return of states previously usurped by Nepal that were annexed by the
British East India Company. However, little support for this motion exists in these regions.
