Investigation of Garhs / Hill forts (fortress) using Geo-Informatics Tools in District Pauri of Garhwal Himalaya

Abstract

One of the most redeeming archaeological feature in Garhwal Himalaya is the ruins of a well laid out regular stone structure of large buildings or fortresses located on the highest cliff of the mountain locally known as Garhs belonging to late medieval. It is owing to the presence of such structures of Garh, this region, which was earlier known as Kedarkhnad in ancient times (Dabral, 1961), was christened as Garhwal from 15th century onward. Chatak, 1990; Naithani, 2006 Dhasmana(1995). Though some preliminary studies have been done by various workers to provide insight into the architecture and history of these Garhs, however no serious investigations has been done to locate them in the region and study these structures in historical perspective. Though the well known Chandpur Garh was excavated by archaeological Survey of India in 2004 to know its antiquity (report unpublished). However, these late medieval structures have largely rather remained a subject of curiosity and not worth of any academic study, and hence have not attracted the attention of to the scholars and others till today. In view of this, I have taken up the study of Garhs in a Geo-historical perspective through multidisciplinary approach to understand the emergence of such structures during late medieval phase and their spatial distribution in the specific mountainous topography. However the present paper reports the preliminary results of the study to precisely find the location of the Garhs in Pauri district of Garhwal Himalaya through exhaustive field work, Remote Sensing and Google Earth.