History of Dehradun
aspect of history
Dehradun is the temporary capital of The Indian state of Uttarakhand, and has a rich and eventful history, it also finds mention in scriptures as well. An early name for the settlement was Dera Ram Rai.
During the British Raj, the town was known as Dera Dun.
History
Ancient history
In Skanda Purana, Dun is mentioned as a part of the region called Kedarkhand, the abode of Shiva. In ancient India during the Mahabharata epic era, Dronacharya the great teacher of Kauravas and Pandavas lived here hence the name, "Dronanagari".
A rock edict of Ashoka, the legendary Mauryan King, who ruled between 273 BCE to 232 BCE, was discovered at Kalsi, 44 km from Dehradun by John Forest, in 1860. The edict was known as Chhatra Shila by the local residents until it was protected by the Archaeological Survey of India following its discovery. Situated on the banks of the Yamuna, Kalsi was earlier known as Kalkut and was a part of the flourishing Kulind janapada. It was the northernmost limit of the surveys done by the founder of ASI Alexander Cunningham who surveyed areas stretching from Kalsi in the north to Narmada in the south.
Establishment of the Town
Dehradun had been a part of the Garhwal Kingdom except for the brief interlude of the Rohillas.
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This entry incorporates text from “History of Dehradun” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.