UKPSC Prelims 2024 General Studies Paper-I · Question 146 of 147

Correct — B, Kumaon and Garhwal.

Tamadhaund is one of the frontier fights between Kumaon and Garhwal — the Chand dynasty ruling from Almora and the Panwar (Parmar) dynasty ruling from Srinagar on the Alaknanda, the two kingdoms that shared a land border across these hills.

Regional chronicles of Kumaon place the fighting near the Tamadhaund hill in the Chaukot tract, on the road towards Masi — border country lying between the two states.

Those chronicles date the encounter to 6 June 1755, in the reigns of Deep Chand of Kumaon and Pradip Shah of Garhwal, and have it closing in a treaty rather than a conquest.

Carry away the geography rather than the name: the Chand–Panwar border was the standing fault line of pre-Gorkha Uttarakhand, so an unplaced battle name from this belt is worth testing against that border first.

• (a)
  Garhwal and Sirmaur — Garhwal's western neighbour was Sirmaur, and the two states did quarrel — but over the Dun and the Yamuna country, a frontier well away from the Chaukot tract where Tamadhaund lies.

  This option belongs to the Garhwal–Sirmaur dispute that Guru Gobind Singh was drawn into at Paonta, the hill politics behind the fighting at Bhangani on 18 September 1688, where Fateh Shah of Garhwal stood among the chiefs opposing the Guru.

• (c)
  Tibet and Garhwal — Garhwal did have a Tibetan frontier, reached through the Mana and Niti passes, so this names a real theatre — a northern one, while Tamadhaund lies inside the hills on the border Garhwal shared with Kumaon.

  Pick this for Garhwal's pass-country dealings with western Tibet, where traditions recorded by Rahul Sankrityayan have Fateh Shah's sword and armour kept long afterwards at the Daba monastery.

• (d)
  Tibet and Kumaon — Kumaon fought across the Tibetan border too, so this option also names real fighting — but its theatre is the Johar route and the Kailash–Manasarovar pilgrim road, not the Chaukot hills.

  It is the right answer to Baz Bahadur Chand's capture of the Taklakot fort in 1670, a Kumaoni push over the passes that followed complaints of attacks on pilgrims.

Before the Gorkha conquest, the hills of present Uttarakhand were held by two kingdoms: Kumaon under the Chand dynasty, seated at Almora, and Garhwal under the Panwar (Parmar) dynasty, seated at Srinagar on the Alaknanda.

They met along an internal frontier running through the hill tracts between the Ramganga and the Alaknanda. Fights there tend to be named after the local landmark they were fought at — a hill, a ford, a village — which is why the names look obscure.

• Kumaon was ruled by the Chand dynasty from Almora; Garhwal was ruled by the Panwar (Parmar) dynasty from Srinagar on the Alaknanda.
• Regional chronicles of Kumaon place the Tamadhaund fighting near the Tamadhaund hill in the Chaukot tract, on the route towards Masi.
• Those chronicles date the battle to 6 June 1755, when Deep Chand ruled Kumaon and Pradip Shah ruled Garhwal.
• The Kumaoni force at Tamadhaund was led by Shiv Datt Joshi, and the Garhwal king withdrew towards Srinagar.
• An exchange of turbans sealed the treaty between Pradip Shah of Garhwal and Deep Chand of Kumaon.
• Baz Bahadur Chand of Kumaon captured the fort of Taklakot in 1670, after complaints of attacks on Kailash–Manasarovar pilgrims.
• Fateh Shah of Garhwal was among the hill chiefs who fought Guru Gobind Singh at Bhangani on 18 September 1688.
• The Gorkhas took Almora in 1790 and defeated Garhwal at Khurbura in 1804, where Pradyumna Shah was killed.
• After the Anglo-Nepalese War, Kumaon and eastern Garhwal came under the British while the Panwar line ruled Tehri Garhwal.

• Reading 'Tibet' into the answer because the battle-site name sounds unfamiliar; an unfamiliar hill name is not evidence of a foreign enemy.
• Treating Garhwal's famous outside enemies — the Gorkhas, Sirmaur — as the default opponent, and skipping the neighbour it shared its inner, hill-country frontier with.
• Attaching the 1670 capture of Taklakot to Garhwal; that campaign was Kumaon's, under Baz Bahadur Chand.
• Dating Tamadhaund to the Gorkha period, when the fighting belongs to the years while both hill kingdoms were still independent.
• Confusing Srinagar in Garhwal, on the Alaknanda, with Srinagar in Kashmir when reading about the Panwar capital.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The capture of the fort of Taklakot in 1670 is associated with which ruler?

  • (a)Baz Bahadur Chand of Kumaon
  • (b)Pradip Shah of Garhwal
  • (c)Fateh Shah of Garhwal
  • (d)Deep Chand of Kumaon
  Answera — Baz Bahadur Chand led the Kumaoni force over the Johar route and took Taklakot in 1670, after complaints of attacks on Kailash–Manasarovar pilgrims.

  Pradip Shah and Fateh Shah ruled Garhwal, whose Tibetan dealings ran through the Mana and Niti passes, while the Johar route lies in Kumaon. Deep Chand ruled Kumaon later, in the mid-eighteenth century, and belongs to the Garhwal frontier rather than to 1670.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following pairs is correctly matched?

  • (a)Battle of Bhangani (1688) — Fateh Shah of Garhwal among the chiefs opposing Guru Gobind Singh
  • (b)Battle of Khurbura — Kumaon against Sirmaur
  • (c)Capture of Taklakot (1670) — Garhwal against Sirmaur
  • (d)Battle of Tamadhaund — Tibet against Kumaon
  Answera — Bhangani was fought near Paonta on 18 September 1688, and Fateh Shah of Garhwal stood among the hill chiefs facing Guru Gobind Singh's forces.

  Khurbura was fought near Dehradun in 1804 between the Gorkhas and Garhwal, so b misnames both sides. Taklakot was a Kumaoni campaign into Tibet under Baz Bahadur Chand, which sinks c. Tamadhaund was fought between Kumaon and Garhwal, which sinks d.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Chand dynasty and the Panwar (Parmar) dynasty ruled, respectively, over

  • (a)Kumaon and Garhwal
  • (b)Garhwal and Kumaon
  • (c)Kumaon and Kullu
  • (d)Kullu and Garhwal
  Answera — The Chands ruled Kumaon from Almora and the Panwars ruled Garhwal from Srinagar on the Alaknanda, and it is their shared frontier that produced battles such as Tamadhaund.

  Option b simply reverses the pair. Options c and d bring in Kullu, a separate hill state on the Beas with its own ruling line, so neither of these two dynasties can be matched to it.