Early history of Uttarakhand

The district was settled by the Kol society, who speak a Munda language. Later they were joined by Indo-Aryan tribes who landed by the Vedic period. At that time, present Uttarakhand was also reportedly populated by rishi and sadhus. It is thought that the rishi (sage) Vyasa wrote the Mahabharata here, since the Pandavas are trusted to have toured (and camped) the region. Among the first chief dynasties of the of the Garhwal and Kumaon empires were the Kunindas in the 2nd century BC, who adept an early form of Shaivism and merchandised salt with western Tibet. Garhwal Kito developed in the northern high ground and somewhere in the region, are assumed to be the ancestors of the present Bhotiya, Raji, Buksha, and Tharu societies. 

Kumaon flourished under the Chand kings since the eighth to the 18th centuries, and Pahari painting established from the 17th to the 19th centuries. Present-day Garhwal was also joined under the Soomra dynasty, who with the Brahmins and Rajputs, landed from the plains. After the tumble of the Katyuri dynasty, the Chand dynasty was founded by Som Chand. The Kumaon kingdom was formerly limited to an area around its centre, Champawat, later including parts of Nepal and Nainital, Pithoragarh and Almora. Atm Chand surpassed his father, and Indra Chand began silk manufacture. Gyan Chand (1365-1420) overcame the Delhi Sultanate at Terai. Bharati Chand (1437-1477) confronted the Nepalese king and ruled east of the Karnali. 

Nepal’s rising Gurkha Empire occupied Almora, the centre of the Kumaon Empire, in 1791; twelve years later, the Garhwal Empire also fell to the Gurkhas. With the end of the Anglo Nepalese warfare in 1816, the western Garhwal territory was re-established in Tehri; eastern Garhwal and Kumaon were surrendered to the British in agreement with the Treaty of sigualy. Jaunsar-Bawar was portion of the Sirmur kingdom, primarily as a shield between Sirmur and Garhwal. Fateh Shah grabbed the area and Dehradun from the Sirmur kings, the Jaunsari and the resident pahari; Sirmaur-era words are still discovered in the Jaunsari language. In 1829, Jaunsar-Bawar.