DEHRADUN, Uttarakhand

Main Attraction: Mussoorie

Mussoorie is situated at an altitude of 2000 meters. It is popularly regarded as the “Queen of Hill Stations”. It came into notice after Captain Young of the English Army settled here. Its quaint collages, beautiful churches with stained glass windows and Victorian Bandstand signify the British influences. Mussoorie offers a stupendous view of the Himalayas and the Shivaliks. The places of interest are Gun Hill, Municipal Garden, Childers Lodge, Camel’s Back Road, Bhatta Falls, Massey Falls, Jharipani Falls, Nag Devta Temple, Mussoorie Temple, Van Chetna Kendra, Sir George Everest House, Jwalaji Temple and Cloud’s End. The nearest railhead is Dehradun (35 km). Regular bus services connect it to all the major tourist centers in the region.

Brief History

The district is named after the town Dehradun, which itself has two words Dehra and Dun or Doon. Dehra is derived from Dera which mean a temporary staying place and Doon means a valley. In the period of Aurangzeb, this area was a dense forest with dangerous wildlife. Ram Rai Guru of Udasi Sikh was ordered by Aurangzeb to camp there to retire in the wilderness of the Dun, He had pitched his tents at the place which is now in the Khurbura locality of the town. Ram Rai had also built a temple near Dhamawala. Around the two sites, grew up the town, popularly known as Dehra.

The term Dun or Doon means, the lower plains in the foot of mountain range. In early times the area covered by the district was included in Garhwal which according to the Skanda Purana was Kedarkhand, the abode of Kedara or Shiva. The district is associated with Ramayana and Mahabharata. Rishikesh and Tapovan are associated with Rama and Lakshmana. According to a legend, they came on the advice of the sage Vashishtha to do penance for killing Ravana, the Brahman king of Lanka. Among the pre-Aryan inhabitants of the region, the most important were those known by the name Asuras. The early Aryan settlers had to encounter these deadly foes at every step. After the fall of Yakshas, Nagas and Asuras (who were the early inhabitants of the region), the people who came were Kirats, Kunindas and Khasas.

According to local tradition, the next ruler of the region was Raja Virat, whose capital was Bairatgarh or Bairatgarhi (above Kalsi in pargana Jaunsar Bhabhar) and who gave his daughter Uttara in marriage to the Arjuna’s son Abhimanyu. After Mahabharata, the Kauravas were exterminated and the Pandavas regained their supremacy over the area and Subahu’s descendants ruled here for some time as tributaries of the kings of Hastinapur. The people who eventually emerged as the dominant elements in this area were, however, the Khasas who presumed to have ruled over different parts of the region down to the time of Mauryas, in whose empire the region was included, the fact being supported by the presence of Ashoka’s rock edicts at Kalsi, near Haripur in pargana Jaunsar Bhabhar. In 635 AD the Chinese Pilgrim Hiuen Tsang visited the kingdom of Srughna, which may have included a part of the Doon.

At the beginning of the 12th century the bulk of the area covered by the present district of Dehradun formed part of the dominion of the Garhwal Raja and the tract of Jaunsar Bhabhar was under the sway of the raja of Sirmur or Nahan, now being in Himachal Pradesh. Beginning with Garhwal king Kanakpal, the area was ruled by many rulers, prominent among them being Bhaktipal, Vikrampal, Vichitrapal, Sonpal, Hanspal, and Ajai Pal who was succeeded by Kalyanpal and the later by Sunder Pal during 1398 A.D. Sunder Pal was succeeded by Hansdeo Pal and later by Vijai Pal and the next Raja was Sahajpal who lived about 1425 A.D. and whose successor was Balbhadra Pal. It was this Raja, also known as Balbhadra Sah and Bahadur Sah who is said to have changed dynastic cognomen from Pal to Sah. At the time of the reign of Kirti Shah in the year 1791 this area was attacked by Gorkhas. This region was again attacked by Gorakhas in 1803. On 20th October 1814, the Gorakhas were defeated by virtue of help from British army. As a reward Dehradun was handed over to British by the then ruler.

Several administrative changes took place in the district after its annexation to British Empire. In the year 1815, the tract comprising tahsil Dehradun was added to the district Saharanpur. In 1825, however, it was transferred to the Kumaon division. Till then, the pargana of Jaunsar Bhabhar was under the charge of British resident at Delhi. In 1828 Dehradun and Jaunsar Bhabhar were placed under the charge of a separate Deputy Commissioner and in 1929, the Dehradun district was transferred from Kumaon division to Meerut division. Since then Jaunsar Bhabhar also appears to have become integral part of Dehradun. In 1842 a resolution of government annexed the Dun to Saharanpur district and placed it in charge of an officer, subordinate to the collector and magistrate of that district with the designation of superintendent. But since 1871, it was being administered as a separate district. After 1951, Tehri Garhwal was carved out and the district was merged within the Meerut division till 1968, when it was transferred to the Garhwal division. Now Dehradun is declared as the capital of newly created state of Uttarakhand