4. How had the town called Dehra Dun changed with time?
Answers
ANSWER
Dehradun had been a part of the Garhwal Kingdom except for the brief interlude of the Rohillas. The city is believed to have been named after the camp, or dera, established by Baba Ram Rai, elder son of the seventh Sikh Guru, Guru Har Rai, who came here in 1675. He settled in the village Dhamawala, which even today hosts the annual Jhanda Mela on the fifth day after Holi in his memory.[5] Thus the name refers to his 'dera' or camp in the 'Doon' valley, around which the present town gradually developed,[6] and marking this settlement is a gurudwara called Guru Ram Rai Darbar Sahib, built between 1699 and 1707 with the help of Raja of Garhwal, Fateh Shah, who was succeeded by his grandson in the same year, Pratap Shah,[1] and modelled on the tomb of Mughal Emperor Jehangir.[7]
Historically, Dehradun was a part of the Garhwal Kingdom also known as 'Kedarkhand', which was founded by Ajai Pal, around 1400, by capturing all the minor principalities of the Garhwal region, under his own sway, and thereafter, he and his descendants ruled over Garhwal and the adjacent state of Tehri-Garhwal, in an uninterrupted line till 1803, when the Gurkhas invaded Kumaon and Garhwal.[8] In 1757, Najib-ul-Daula, the governor of Saharanpur, who later founded city of Najibabad, invaded the city with his army of Rohillas and ruled here, leading to its widespread development. He provided them with land, fostered trade, dug canals, sank wells and raised the revenue to a lakh and a quarter of rupees[9] though after his death in 1770, it was successively annexed by surrounding tribes of Rajputs, Gujjars, Sikhs and Gurkhas who ruled the region in quick succession, and lead to its steady downfall.In 1804, it was annexed by the Gurkhas, who made the king of Garhwal, Pradyuman Shah, flee to Saharanpur, leaving the region to be ruled by an iron fist by the Gurkha general 'BAL BHADRA KUNWAR'. Later, King Pradyuman Shah and his sons Kunwar Parakrama Shah and Kunwar Pritam Shah, and a 12,000 strong army fought with the Gorkhas at Khurbura, where Pradyuman Shah was killed.In the same year, the British had already taken over Saharanpur, which led to continuous skirmishes between the two armies, leading to the Gurkha War (1814–1816), also known as the Anglo-Nepalese War, when eventually the Gurkhas were ousted after the siege of the fort of Nalapani.
The Sugauli Treaty, signed on 2 December 1815 and ratified by 4 March 1816, between the British East India Company and The Kingdom of Nepal, ending the second British invasion of the Himalayan kingdom during the Anglo-Nepalese War (1814–1816). The signatory for Nepal was Raj Guru Gajaraj Mishra aided by Chandra Sekher Upadhyaya and Lieutenant-Colonel Paris Bradshaw signed for the Company.The treaty led to the annexation of the Dehradun and east Garhwal Kingdom into the British Empire, and they became part of the Garhwal District, in the Kumaon Division of the United Provinces, and had an area of 5629 sq. mi, and that is when it slowly started regaining its lost glory.[10][11][12] Meanwhile, the west Garhwal was reinstituted to the Garhwal Kingdom, and Sudarshan Shah, son of the slain king, was made the king of Tehri Garhwal, who made Tehri his capital.