History of Kumaon, Garhwal (Uttarakhand) - Part -18

Kumaon and Garhwal in Epics- Mahabharata and Ramayana and Purans

History of Kumaon, Garhwal (Uttarakhand) - Part -18  

Historical Aspects of Ancient communities of Kumaon-Garhwal (Uttarakhand), Himalayas-15                     

Historical Aspects of Garhwal & Kumaon in Epics-Mahabharata and Ramayana and Purans -2    

[Notes on Garhwal in Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purans; Hardwar Garhwal in Mahabharata, Dehradun Garhwal in Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purans; Rudraprayag Garhwal in Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purans; Tihri Garhwal in Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purans;  Chamoli Garhwal in Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purans; Pauri Garhwal in Mahabharata, Kankhal, Bhrigukhal, Kotdwara Garhwal in Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purans; Ramayana and Purans; Kumaon in Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purans; Pithauragarh Kumaon in Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purans; Dwarhat Kumaon in Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purans; Bageshwar Kumaon in Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purans; Champawat Kumaon in Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purans; Almora Kumaon in Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purans; Nainital Kumaon in Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purans; Udham Singh Nagar Kumaon in Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purans]         

                                      Bhishma Kukreti

   From the time, professional historians started writing History of India the existence of Mahabharata and Ramayana happenings have been in question and the questions of reality of Mahabharata and Ramayana are still in discussion among historians even after Dr. B .B. Lal carried on  Hastinapur excavation (Chattopadhyaya, 2003).

 R.C. Majumdar and A.D.Pusalkar  (1988) divided Mahabharata eras as

Before, flood- 3102 B.C.

Great Flood- Manu Vaivswat 3102 -2950 B.C.

Yayati era- 3000-2750 B.C.

Mandhata era- 2750-2550 B.C.

Parushram Era- 2550-2350

Ramchandra Era – 2350-1950- B.C.

Krishna Era 1950-1400 B.C.

 Great Battle of Mahabharata – 1400B.C.

Parikshit to early Nanda era- 1400-350 B.C.

                 Uttarakhand in Epics, Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purans.

The great grandson of  Dhruva  was Venu.  Kedarkhand, Mahabharata described Venu and his capital was Mayapur (Haridwar/Hardwar). Due to cruel behavior of  Venu , the subject did not like him and displaced him from crown. It seems Venu was Dom king.

Kedarkhand a Puran (172/15;178/44) describes  that king Satyasandh ruled Uttarakhand. Kanningham states that the kingdom of Satyaasandh was in Maadipur, Bijnaur regions.

According to Mahabharata (Shantiparv, 59/1-9), Prithu the son of Venu collected gold from Meru hills (Uttarakhand).

Daksh- The fifth generation king of Prithu was Daksh Prajapati. The kingdom of Daksha Prajapti was extended to uttarkahnd to Madhya Pradesh. The capital of Daksha was Kankhal , Hardwar (Mahabharata, Shalyaparv, 38/28-29).

Vaivswat Manu: Manu protected people in great flood (Pralay). Manu performed the ritual of Tapa (penance) in Badrikashram , Garhwal (Mahabharata, Vanparv, 187/4). Manu was ultimate father of human beings and his capital was Ayodhya.

Pururava: As per Rigveda, Puruva displaced Dasa kingdoms. According to Haripuran (26/6-7), Pururava roamed and live for many years and travelled Chaitrarathan near Badrikashram (Garhwal), Alkapuri near Mandakini bank; Uttarkurupradesh, Gandhmandhan mountains.

Nahus of Yayati era: According to Mahabharata (Vanparva, 129/3), the grandson of Pururava Nahus performed penance ritual near Yamuna bank in Uttarakhand.

Yayati: Yayati was son of Nahush and is believed his kingdom was extended up to Uttarakhand.

Anu: Anu was son of Yayati who was given the Uttarakhand kingdom (Mahabharata, Adiparva, 84/25-26).

                  Sages who performed penance rituals in Uttarakhand

Sages as Angira, Mareechi, Pulah and many sages performed Tap (penance ritual) in Badrikashram and other parts of Uttarakhand (Mahabharata, Vanparv, 142/6).

                           Bhrigutung Mountain of Mahabharata is not Kedar shrine  

Taking shloka of Mahbharata (Vanparva 90/23 as base, Shiv Prasad Dabral (Uttarakhand ka Itihas -3 page 294) writes that sage Bhrigu performed pnance ritual in Bhrigutung and Dr Dabral states Bhrigutung as Kedar Shrune. It seems wrong as Dhyauma sage describing various teerthas (auspicious place) of North region states that there is Gangdwar (Hardwar), Kankhal (sanatkumar’s living place), and there is place of Tapasthali of Bhrigu sage.

भृगुर्यत्र तपस्तेपे महर्षिगणसेविते
राजन स आश्रम ख्यातो  भृगुतुंगो महागिरी (महाभारत , वनपर्व 90/23)

In this episode of Mahabharata, the Bhrigutung shrine is near to Kankhal  and Hardwar. Even today, there is Bhrigukhal  (Udaypur Patti, Pauri Garhwal) near to Kankhal and Hardwar. It means Mahabharata describes about Bhrigukhal and not Kedar shrine as suggested  by Dr Dabral.   

Garhwal & Kumaon in Epics-Mahabharata and Ramayana and Purans to be continued…3

Copyright@ Bhishma Kukreti 20/4/2013

****Reference for Historical Aspects of Garhwal & Kumaon in Epics-Mahabharata and Ramayana and Purans .

B.D. Pandey, Kumaon ka Itihas, pages 179

Shiv Prasad Dabral, Uttarakhand ka Itihas part 2, pages 283-319

B.D. Chatopadhyaya , 2003, Studying Early India: Archeology, Texts and Historical  Issues

(The write up is for general readers and may not be properly suitable for history research scholars)

History of Garhwal –Kumaon (Uttarakhand) to be continued… Part -19

Ancient communities of Kumaon-Garhwal (Uttarakhand), Himalayas- to be continued…16

References and Further Reading Suggestions:

Badri Datt Pandey, 1937, Kumaun ka Itihas, (second edition.) Shyam Prakashan, Almora (page 155-179)

Dabral, Shiv Prasad, 1968, Uttarakhand ka Itihas Bhag-2, (pages117 to321), Veer Gath Press, Dogadda, India

Dinesh Prasad Saklani, 1998, Ancient Communities of the Himalayas

D.D Sharma, 2009, Cultural History of Uttarakhand

Hari Krishna Raturi, 1921, Garhwal ka Itihas

Jagdish Bahadur , 2003 Indian Himalayas

Dr. Naval  Viyogi, Professor M A Ansari, 2010  History of the Later Harappans and Shilpkara Movement (two volumes) Kalpaz Publication, Delhi, India

Khadak Singh Valdiya , 2001, Himalaya: Emergence and Evolution , Uni Press, Hyderabad,  India

K.P.Nautiyal, B.M. Khanduri, 1997, Him Kanti (page 85 for Khasa)

O.P Kandari and O.P Gusain, 2001, Garhwal Himalaya (Pages for Khasa- 309/360) 

Lalan Ji Gopal and Vinod Chandra Shrivastava , History of Agriculture in India  (up to 1200AD(article of Dr K.P Nautiyal et all – Agriculture in Garhwal Himalayas o to 1200AD, page 162)

Kanti Prasad Nautiyal, 1969, The Archeology of Kumaon including Dehradun

K.P Nautiyal, B.M. Khanduri, 1991, Emergence of Early culture in Garhwal , Central Himalaya

R.C.Bhatt, K.P. Nautiyal, 1987-88Trans Himalayan Burials, visa vis Malari, an Assessment, JOSHARD, Vol11-12 (pp 95-101)

D.P Agarwal, Jeewan Singh Kharakwal ,1995, Cist Burials of the Kumaun Himalayas, 

Http://www.thefreeliberary.com/cist +burial+Himalayas-a017422774

New cultural Dimension in the Central Himalayas, region of Uttarakhand, an Archeological assessment:

http://opar.unior.it/664/1/5/Annali 1986 (f1)K.p.nautiyal-B.M.Khanduri  

Ajya Rawat, History of Garhwal

C.M Agarwal history of Kumaon

D.P Agarwal, J Kharakwal, 1995, Kumaon Archeology and Tradition, Almora Book, Almora

O.C. Handa, 2003, History of Uttaranchal (Page 22 for Khashas)

O.C. Handa, 2009, Art and Architecture of Uttarakhand

 S.s Negi ,Back and beyond, Garhwal Himalaya: Nature, Culture and Society

B.P. Kamboj, 2003, Early Wall painting of Garhwal

S.S.s Negi, Himalayan Rivers, lakes and Glaciers

Surendra Singh, 1995, Urbanization in Garhwal Himalaya: a geographical Interpretation

Upinder  Singh, 2008,History of Earlier and Medieval India.

John Whelpton, 2005, History of Nepal (page 22 , Khasa)

Narendra Singh Bisht and T. S Bankoti, 2004, Encyclopedic Ethnography of the Himalayan Tribes (Page for Khasa – 736)

J.C. Agarwal, S.P.Agarwal, S.S. Gupta, 1995, Uttarakhand: Past, Present and Future

M.S. S Rawat (editor), Himalaya: a Regional Perspective

Carleton Stevens Coon, 1962, The Origin of Race

C.S. Coon, The Races of Europe

Notes on Garhwal in Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purans; Hardwar Garhwal in Mahabharata, Dehradun Garhwal in Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purans; Rudraprayag Garhwal in Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purans; Tihri Garhwal in Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purans;  Chamoli Garhwal in Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purans; Pauri Garhwal in Mahabharata, Kankhal, Bhrigukhal, Kotdwara Garhwal in Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purans; Ramayana and Purans; Kumaon in Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purans; Pithauragarh Kumaon in Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purans; Dwarhat Kumaon in Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purans; Bageshwar Kumaon in Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purans; Champawat Kumaon in Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purans; Almora Kumaon in Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purans; Nainital Kumaon in Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purans; Udham Singh Nagar Kumaon in Mahabharata, Ramayana and Purans to be continued…