Kashi Of North Uttarkashi City Directory

History of Uttarkashi District

Uttarkashi was known as Barahat in ancient age which means ‘Large Market’; probably it was used to trade between India and Tibet at past time. Some other stories say the name Barahat comes from Trishul which is a source of Barah Shakti and Barahat is corrupted word of Barah Hath. Barahat has also connected with ‘Chamalaki Chowri’ as per the ancient stories. Chamalaki Chowri is exists today as Bhairon Chowk temple where ther temples of Bhairon, Parshuram and Annapurna also located. The founder of Uttarkashi is Pal or Panwar dynasty was Kanak Pal who came to here possibly on 9th century AD from Maharashtra. Kanak Pal was married to the daughter of Bhanu Pratap who was a chieftain of Chandpur Garhi. In the early 16th century AD, Raja Ajay Pal who was 37th descendant established the supremacy after defeating the 52nd chieftains of Garhwal. The capital then shifted to Dewalgarh and them Srinagar from Chandpur Garhi. In the 17th century the suffix ‘Pal’ was changed to ‘Shah’. Gorkhas has over-run the Garhwal in 1803 by defeating Raja Pradyuman Shah. His son Raja Sudarshan Shah defeated Gorkhas after 12 years and took back the kingdom by taking help of British. In 1960 Uttarkashi was made a district after independence of India.