Pithoragarh
human settlement in India
Pithoragarh (Kumaoni: Pithor'garh) is a Himalayan town and a municipal corporation in Pithoragarh district in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the largest hill town in Kumaon division and in Uttarakhand.
Etymology
Tradition has it that during the reign of the Chand Rajas of Kumaon, one Piru, also called Prithvi Gosain, built a fort here and named it Prithvigarh which, in the course of time, got changed to Pithoragarh.
History
Pithoragarh city and its surrounding areas were part of the Manaskhand region, which extended from the Kailash Mountain in the north to Bhabar & Terai in the south, as mentioned in the Skanda Purana. The Asuras and Nagas appear to be the earliest inhabitants of the region, who were later superseded by the Kiratas, Khasas and the Kunindas. The Kuninda Kings of the region may have become the feudatories of the Kushana kings, who held sway over the region in the last quarter of the 1st century AD.
The region subsequently came under the Kurmanchal kingdom, which had its capital first at Jyotirmath and then at Karikeyapura (Modern day Baijnath) in the Katyur Valley. The Group of Temples at Kasni village (3 km from city centre) were built in 11th century during the rule of Katyuri kings.
Upon the disintegration of the Katyuris and fall of the kingdom in 13th century, Pithoragarh came under the rule of Bam kings of Saur. The Bam kings were vassals to the Raikas of Doti and were a branch of the Katyuri kings. They had their capital at Udaipur near Pithoragarh, However, the Rajas used to come down to Rameshwar and Bailorkol during the winter months.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pithoragarh” 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.