The Katyuri Dynasty

The Katyuris were the first dynasty to rule most of Uttarakhand as one kingdom, from their seat in the Katyur valley of Kumaon. Their great legacy is stone: the temple clusters of Jageshwar, Baijnath and Katarmal that still stand in deodar shade.

Rising around the 7th century, the Katyuris ruled from Kartikeyapura in the Katyur valley near present-day Baijnath, and at their height their writ ran across both Kumaon and Garhwal and beyond. Tradition remembers founders like Vashudev Katyuri, and their administration of the hills left names and land divisions that lasted centuries.

Their monuments define early hill architecture. The Jageshwar group near Almora, more than a hundred stone shrines to Shiva in a deodar grove, grew through their era; Baijnath's temples rose by the Gomati; and at Katarmal they raised one of India's very few major sun temples, looking out over the Kosi valley.

From around the 11th century the kingdom fragmented into smaller Katyuri branches. Folk memory turned the last kings into songs and jagars, and out of the fragments rose the two powers of the medieval hills: the Chands in Kumaon and the Panwars in Garhwal.