Himachal Pradesh - Early History
The ancient history of the area is screened behind a veil of obscurity. Fragmentary light thrown by recent explorations and researches traces habitation to the later stages of Palaeolithic period. Stone tools and flakes have been discovered in various places in the State like in the Shivalik foothills; at Guler, Dehra, Dhaliara and Kangra in the Beas valley; Bilaspur and Nalagarh in the Sirsa-Satluj valley and in Suketi area of the Markanda valley of Sirmaur. Traces of settled life have also been found at Ror in Kangra — and these show that human settlements had spread all over the region and supported a people who reared domestic animals, bred livestock and had taken to farming and allied agricultural activities.
The foothills of the state were inhabited by people from Indus valley civilization which flourished between 2250 and 1750 BC. People of Indus valley civilization pushed the original inhabitants of Ganga plains who were known as Kolorian people towards north. They moved to the hills of Himachal Pradesh where they could live peacefully and preserve their way of life. In the Vedas they have been referred to as Dasas, Dasyus and Nishadas while in later works they have been called Kinnars, Nagas and Yakshas. The Kols or Mundas are believed to be the original migrants to the hills of present day Himachal.
The second phase of migrants came in the form of Mongoloid people known as Bhotas and Kiratas. Later on came the third and most important wave of migrants in the form of the Aryans who left their Central Asian home. These laid the base of history and culture of Himachal Pradesh.
In the Shimla hills many khunds, which are pockets within informal local identity, are still active in the social and cultural fields — Ghund, Tharoch, Kumharsain and Kotkhai once comprised of a number of khunds. They most probably began as a distinct identity governed by garhmat (consensus). With the passage of time leaders sprang up within the khunds in the person of muwana or mawi. The muwanas were very often at war with each other gaining or losing their principalities. When a muwana succeeded in extending his sway over a number of khunds, he took the title of thakur or rana and his principality came to be known as thakurai or rahun. Occasionally, these petty units would disintegrate giving birth to some other bigger conglomeration. The process of fusion, fission, expansion and contraction continued till the muwanas, thakurs and the ranas were overthrown as effective rulers by the Brahmanas and Kashtriyas and driven out from various parts of India. Numerous tribal janapads (republics) and ekarajyas (monarchies) which in time came to occupy the Central and Western Himalayas have played a crucial role in shaping the region’s history. They are believed to have faded from the political map of Northern India sometime before 350 AD. A few principalities in the hills were tributaries of Yaudheyas, who were overrun by Samudra Gupta in the fourth century AD. According to the Mahabharta the tract which forms the present day Himachal Pradesh was made up of number of small republics known as Janpadas each of which constituted both a state and cultural unit.
- Audumbras: The were the most prominent ancient tribes of Himachal who lived in the lower hills between Pathankot and Jwalamukhi. They formed a separate state in 2 BC.
- Trigarta: The state lay in the foothills drained by three rivers, i.e. Ravi, Beas and Satluj and hence the name. It is believed to have been an independent republic.
- Kuluta: The kingdom of Kilita was situated in the upper Beas valley which is also known as the Kully valley. Its capital was Naggar.
- Kulindas: This kingdom covered the area lying between the Beas, Satluj and Yamuna rivers, i.e. the Shimla and Sirmour hills. Their administration resembled a republic with members of a central assembly sharing the powers of the king.
- Gupta Empire: Chandragupta slowly subdued most of the republics of Himachal by show of strength or use of force though he usually did not rule them directly. Ashoka, the grandson of Chandragupta extended his boundaries to the Himalyan region. He introduced Buddhism to this tract. He built many stupas one of which is in the Kullu valley. On the basis of Jain literary sources it may well be said that the hill regions of present- day Himachal Pradesh and Garhwal formed a part of Chandragupta’s empire. From inscriptions found at Dehradun and Topra, it will not be unreasonable to surmise that during the reign of Asoka, the Mauryan Empire had extended further into the region. The presence in Chamba, Kangra and Hamirpur of Grace-Bactrians is evidenced from the coins found in the area at no fewer than five places.
- Huns: Around the end of the fifth or the beginning of sixth century AD, the Hunas, a nomadic tribe, came to occupy the areas of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Kashmir. In course of their expansionist drive they are assumed to have advanced into Himachal Pradesh. The Huna occupation of the Chamba area is supported by numismatic evidence. In an inscription of the later Gupta dynasty of Magdha, it is stated that the Mukharis had defeated the Hunas. The former’s suzerainty over the Himalayan region may be specifically inferred from the travel accounts of Chinese traveler, Yuan-Chwang.
- Harsha: After the collapse of Gupta empire and before the rise of Harsha, this area was again ruled by petty chiefs known as Thakurs and Ranas. With the rise of Harsha in the early 7th century, most of these small states acknowledged his overall supremacy though many local powers remained with the petty chiefs.
A few decades after Harsha’s death (647 AD) many Rajput states ascended in Rajsthan and Indus plains. They fought among themselves and the vanquished moved to the hills with their followers, where they set up small states or principalities. After the collapse of the Vardhan Empire, northern India became congeries of small states. In the cis-Himalaya, between the rivers Ravi and Yamuna, petty chiefs known as ranas or thakurs mushroomed everywhere. As their thumb-sized units were constantly engaged in internecine warfare, all of them succumbed to Rajput adventurers who founded powerful principalities. The These states were Kangra, Nurpur, Suket, Mandi, Kutlehar, Baghal, Bilaspur, Nalagarh, Keonthal, Dhami, Kunihar, Bushahar, Sirmour.
The small hill kingdoms enjoyed a large degree of independence till the eve of Muslim invasions in northern India. States of the foothills were devastated by Muslim invaders from time to time. Mahmud Ghaznavi conquered Kangra at the begining of the 10th centuary. Timur and Sikander Lodi also marched through the lower hills and captured several forts and fought many battles.
The hill region did not undergo any material political change in the whirlwind invasions of foreign raiders or during the reigns of early Mohammadan rulers. The situation, however, underwent radical change under the Mughals. The Kangra fort was conquered by Jahangir and its entire territory was annexed. Although the hill rajas had to pay a tribute and a fee of investiture to the Emperor, and were sometimes required to send their sons to the court as hostages, there was little direct interference in their internal affairs. The large states of Kangra, Chamba and Sirmaur were Mughal tributaries — as were the smaller hill states.
Later on as the Mughal dynasty began to break up; the rulers of the hill states took full advantage. The Katoch rulers of Kangra availed of this opportunity and Kangra regained independence status under Maharaja Sansar Chand who ruled for nearly half a centuary. He was one of the ablest administrators of the region. After he took formal possession of Kangra fort, Sansar Chand began to expand his territory. The states of Chamba, Suket, Mandi, Bilaspur, Guler, Jaswan, Siwan and Datarpur came under the direct or indirect control of Sansar Chand.
That the hill states were able to maintain their political identity for a long period of time, was in great measure due to their isolated position and the inaccessible character of the country. It is however improbable that politically they were ever independent and they formed part, at least nominally, of the great empires of the Mauryas, Kushanas and Guptas etc., — or of whichever dynasty happened to occupy the neighboring tracts.
