Deputy Commissioner of Garhwal.
Twenty years ago in a Government resolution Sir Harcourt Butler referred to Garhwal as Terra incognita. Since the campaign in Flanders of 1914-15 his description has become a misnomer; for the deeds of the Garhwali regiment have made the name of their home-land familiar throughout the British Empire and beyond. It is, therefore, very fitting that this book, originally intended to commemorate the centenary of British rule in Garhwal, should make its appearance now, since there must be many whose interest in the district has recently been awakened. Indeed such a book needs no preface at such a time, and it was only at my friend Dr. Pati Ram's express request that these few words of introduction have been written. Certainly he, if any one, is well fitted for the task he has set himself. Having his home in Nagpur, perhaps the most typical of the northern parganas, being himself a descendant of one of the old Rajput clans, a famous fighting stock, he has spent his life in long and honorable service outside Garhwal and has but lately returned to enjoy a well-earned rest from his labours. For his close knowledge of his native land and its history.
his admiration for its beauties, his enthusiasm for its past and his hopes for its future I will leave the book itself to speak.
It may indeed come as a surprise to English readers to find that, despite the obscurity into which it has fallen of late, Garhwal was formerly a well. known resort of the learned and a country famous in Hindu legend. Rishis and ascetics in large numbers resorted to its silent valleys for purposes of meditation or the instruction of their disciples. The final scene in the life of the five heroes of the Mahabharata was enacted amid its mountains and many place-names in the Alaknanda valley still recall the memory of Bhim Sen and his brothers. Garhwal may still claim to be the holy land of India: its valleys are full of ancient temples and there is scarcely a ridge, from which the wonderful spectacle of the snowy range is visible, without its humble shrine. Every year thousands of pilgrims from all parts of India make their laborious way on foot along the Via sacra of Badrinath.
And now by the strange chance of a war on the other side of the globe Garhwal has made for itself in these latter days a new fame and a more glorious renown.
Garhwal though not an isolated tract detached from the rest of the Himalayas, yet it differs somewhat in its physical Geography from the other Himalayan regions. This, perhaps, has been a feature for its having a well marked early history and ethnography. Religiously too, we find it having a claim to be the first land, where the Vedas were gathered together and divided into four separate collections. The various Puranas, which disclose to us the past history, manners, and customs of our ancestors were also compiled here. The country further affords us means of studying the growth and decay of the various cults of the Hindu religion promulgated by various reformers. The whole of India, seems to have been linked with Garhwal from a very remote antiquity by the bond of a highly consecrated faith which found its natural home in this land, specially the first and foremost worldwide sacred shrines of Kedar and Badari and of the mother of the Indian rivers. The living proof is, that thousands of people yearly drift up to this land which serves them as a reminiscence of the serene recesses of Seers, Saints, Sages, Men of Science, Men of Philosophies and Devotees of rigid austerity of the by-gone ages.
An account of the scenery of Garhwal Himalaya, its fauna and flora, its forests where a solemn quiet-ness reigns for ever signalise the country as one of the best places in the world and worth reading.
The ethnography of Garhwal is as pleasing as its religious history, and there is hardly a caste of India which is not represented here. Its political history from remote ages down to the present one, will enable the reader to find now the great changes in every phase of its progress.
The British Government have taken great pains to explore every nook and corner of this region and after extracting from the scriptures as much information as could be got, have written three big volumes on the Central Himalaya (Atkinson's Himalayan Districts). They contain all that could be secured and leave no gap to be filled in, by such an insignificant work as this. The author further has no prefension that this book may take their place. But owing to the huge size of the above-mentioned works, they cannot be readily utilised by tourists, pilgrims, and students. Moreover, they are scarcely accessible to the general public owing to their high price. I need hardly say, how useful it will be to the educated Garhwalis and the lover of history to have a brief knowledge of the country. There appeared so long a dearth of information in regard to this country and this has been felt and frequently ex-pressed by many Indian students and travellers.
In view of the fact that Garhwal would be completing its centenary under the British Raj, the author was led to commemorate it by the publication of this book with the hope that as it is, it may interest the readers to a certain extent.
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