Prehistory

Some evidences have been found that nearly 2 million years ago man lived in the foothills of Himachal Pradesh. Bangana valley of Kangra, Sirsa valley of Nalagarh and Markanda valley of Sirmour are found to be the places where prehistoric man used to live.

Prior to the migration of the Aryan people to Ancient India, the Himalayan territories between the 'River Sutlej' and the 'River Yamuna' were under the administration of an ancient people called the Kiratas, their king being King Shambhar. Their kingdom was located on the crossroads between 'Tibet' and 'India'. The Kiratas were skilled in archery and warfare while also being great traders who exported plenty of trade items between 'Tibet' and 'India'. There are many ancient scriptures denoting the behaviour, appearance and territories of the Kiratas. According to the 'Kirtarjuniya', Lord Shivatook the form of a Kirata hunter to disguise himself from Arjuna. It is a local legend often told by locals of some Himalayan regions such as Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Nepal, Sikkim and Darjeeling. The famous war between the Aryan King 'Divodas' and the Kirata King 'Shambhar' is mentioned in an ancient Hindu scripture, the ‘Rigveda’. King Shambhar had 99 forts in the Western Himalayan region of what is now regarded to be Himachal Pradesh. This war between the Indo-Aryans and Tibeto-Burman 'Kiratas' lasted for a total of 40 years sometime between 3,000BC to 2,500BC and led to the destruction of 99 of the aforementioned forts, King Shambhar and his ally Verchi were slain at a place known as 'Udubraj', supposedly where the war had taken place. This led to the demise of the Kiratas in the Western Himalayas and led to them fleeing eastwards to Nepal and North-East India. The Aryan people were able to successfully enter India after their victory against the Ancient Kiratas. Descendants of the ancient Kiratas are still found today in Modern-Day Nepal and some parts of North-East India.

The foothills of the state were inhabited by people from Indus valley civilization which flourished between the time period of 2250 and 1750 BC. Before indus valley civilization, Koli, Holi, Dooms and Chnnals used to live here.

Medieval history

In about 883 AD Shankar Verma, the ruler of Kashmir exercised his influence over Himachal Pradesh. The region also witnessed the invasion of Mahmud Ghazni in 1009 AD, who during that period he looted the wealth from the temples in the North India. In 1043 AD the Rajputs ruled over the territory.

The small kingdom had enjoyed a large degree of independence till the eve of the Muslim invasions in northern India. The states of the foothills were devastated by Muslim invaders a number of times. Mahmud Ghazni conquered Kangra at the beginning of the 11th century. Timur and Sikander Lodi also marched through the lower hills of the state and captured a number of forts and fought many battles.

Katoch era

In 1773 AD the Rajputs under Katoch Maharaja Sansar Chand possessed the region, until the attack by Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1804 which crushed the Rajput power.

The Gorkha Kingdom came to power in Nepal in 1768 to the east of Kangra. They consolidated their military power and began to expand into the territory between them and Kangra,^[1] annexing Sirmour and Shimla. Under the leadership of General Amar Singh Thapa, the Gorkhas laid siege to Kangra, and in 1806 defeated Sansar Chand, the Katoch ruler of Kangra.

To the west of Kangra, the Sikh Empire rose in 1799, also expanding towards Kangra. At the same time as the Gorkhas were invading Kangra from the east, the Sikhs were invading from the west. After the 1806 defeated of Katoch ruler Sansar Chand by the Gorkha, the Sikh Maharaja Ranjit Singh allied with the Katochs, and the combined armies pushed out the Gorkhas in 1809.

British period

This led to the Anglo-Gorkha war. They came into direct conflict with the British along the tarai belt after which the British expelled them from the provinces of the Satluj. Thus British gradually emerged as the paramount powers. In early 19th century the British annexed the areas of Shimla after the Gurkha War of 1815–16. Himachal became a centrally administered territory in 1948 with the integration of 31 hill provinces and received additional regions in 1966.^[1]

The revolt of 1857 or the first Indian war of independence resulted due to the building up of political, social, economic, religious and military grievances against the British government. People of the hill states were not politically alive as the people in other parts of the country.^[2] They remained more or less inactive and so did their rulers with the exception of Bushahr.

Some of them even rendered help to the British government during the revolt. Among them were the rulers of Chamba, Bilaspur, Bhagal and Dhami. The rulers of Bushars rather acted in a manner hostile to the interests of British.

The British territories in the hill came under British Crown after Queen Victoria's proclamation of 1858. The states of Chamba, Mandi and Bilaspur made good progress in many fields during the British rule. During World War I, virtually all rulers of the hill states remained loyal and contributed to the British war effort both in the form of men and materials. Amongst these were the states of Kangra, Nurpur, Chamba, Suket, Mandi and Bilaspur