From Kedarkhand to the 27th state
📜History of Uttarakhand
Kuninda coins, Katyuri temples, eight centuries of Chand and Panwar kings, the Gorkha storm, the Raj's hill stations, and the movement that won statehood on 9 November 2000. The whole story, era by era.
The eras
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Ancient Uttarakhand
Prehistory to c. 600 CE
Rock art, the Kunindas and the land of the epics
👑
The Katyuri Dynasty
c. 700 to 1200 CE
The first great hill kingdom and its stone temples
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The Chand Dynasty of Kumaon
c. 10th century to 1790
Champawat, Almora and the golden age of Kumaon
🛡️
The Garhwal Kingdom
c. 823 (by tradition) to 1949
The Panwar rajas, from Srinagar to Tehri
⚔️
Gorkha Rule
1790 to 1815
The Gorkhyani, and the war that redrew the Himalaya
🎩
The British Era
1815 to 1947
Hill stations, forest law and the freedom struggle
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The Chipko Movement
1973 to the early 1980s
When the hills hugged their trees
✊
The Statehood Movement
1947 to 9 November 2000
From UP's hill districts to the 27th state
Full timeline
Early dates are approximate; scholarship differs on the exact years of the hill dynasties.
- PrehistoryOchre rock art near Almora marks the region's earliest human traces.
- c. 3rd century BCEThe Maurya empire's rock edict is carved at Kalsi near Dehradun.
- c. 2nd century BCEThe Kuninda kings strike the hills' first coins.
- c. 700The first great hill dynasty rules from Kartikeyapura in the Katyur valley.
- c. 800-1100The great stone temple groups of Kumaon rise under Katyuri patronage.
- c. 10th centuryThe Chand dynasty establishes itself in Kali Kumaon.
- 823 (by tradition)Tradition dates Kanak Pal, ancestor of Garhwal's rajas, to this year.
- c. 1500Fifty-two hill forts are welded into the Garhwal kingdom, capital Srinagar.
- 1568Balo Kalyan Chand moves Kumaon's capital from Champawat to Almora.
- 17th centuryBaz Bahadur Chand's reign marks the Chand kingdom's height.
- 1790Chand rule ends at the battle near Hawalbag; Almora falls.
- 1804Pradyumna Shah dies at Khurbura; Gorkha rule covers the hills.
- 1815The Anglo-Nepalese War ends Gorkha rule. Kumaon and east Garhwal go to the British; Tehri is restored to the Garhwal raja.
- 1820s-1841The Raj builds its summer refuges in the hills.
- 1921Badridutt Pandey's Kumaon agitation ends forced labour.
- 1930Chandra Singh Garhwali refuses to fire at Peshawar; protesters are shot at Tilari in Rawain.
- 1944The Tehri activist dies after an 84-day hunger strike in jail.
- August 1949The princely state merges into the Union and becomes a UP district.
- 1960sUttarkashi, Chamoli and Pithoragarh are carved out after the 1962 war.
- April 1973Villagers near Gopeshwar vow to hug their ash trees; the loggers withdraw.
- 26 Mar 1974Gaura Devi and the village women stand between the axes and the Reni forest.
- 1980A 15-year ban on commercial felling above 1,000 m in the UP Himalaya.
- 1994Mass protests sweep the hills; firings at Khatima, Mussoorie and Rampur Tiraha give the movement its martyrs.
- 9 Nov 2000Uttaranchal becomes India's 27th state, carved from Uttar Pradesh.
- 1 Jan 2007The state formally takes its older, historic name.
- 2020Bhararisain (Gairsain) is declared the summer capital, Dehradun the winter one.