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The founder of the Pal or Panwar dynasty – of
which the present raja is the 61st descendant -- was Kanak Pal, who came to
Uttarakhand in the 9th century AD, possibly from Maharashtra. He married the
daughter of Bhanu Pratap, a chieftain of Chandpur Garhi, and thus himself became
the chieftain at this fortress town.
It was Raja Ajay Pal,
Kanak Pal’s 37th descendant,
who
established the
supremacy of the Panwars after defeating the
52
chieftains who
existed in Garhwal, in the early 16th century AD.
He shifted from Chandpur Garhi first to Dewalgarh and then
to his
new
capital, Srinagar.
In time, the rulers of Garhwal
consolidated the power and size of their kingdom. In fact,
Garhwal was an independent kingdom on which the mighty
Mughals of Delhi had neither influence nor supremacy. The
suffix ‘Pal’ was changed to ‘Shah’ some time in the 17th
century.
In 1803, Garhwal
was over-run by the Gorkhas and the then king, Raja
Pradyuman Shah, lost both his life and his kingdom to them. It was
Raja Sudarshan
Shah who,
after wresting his kingdom back from the Gorkhas after 12
years with the help of the British, shifted the capital of
the
Tehri Riyasat
to Tehri in 1815.
However, the court
fortune-teller and pandit foresaw doom for the city (a
prophesy that did come true as Tehri no longer exits) and
urged Raja Narendra Shah, Raja Sudarshan Shah’s successor
and the 59th ruler of the dynasty, to shift his capital.
Following his court’s advice,
Raja Narendra Shah made the new town of Narendra
Nagar his capital in 1919. The town is named after its
founding father Narendra Shah.
Another reason he may have
moved is that, for several generations, the ruler of the
Shah dynasty always passed away before the age of 30. He
felt that he might avoid the same fate by moving his
capital. Some say that he was advised by a doctor to move
from Tehri for health reason. One more reason that is cited
for shifting the capital is that Narendra Shah wanted to set
an example in putting an end to the
Prabhu Seva
tradition. When the royal family moved from Tehri to Dehradun for the winter, the luggage was carried over the long
distance by people caught in this unpleasant tradition. It
was felt that Narendra Nagar’s proximity to Dehradun would
help this cause.
The small town of Odathali in the Lower Himalayas was
chosen as the site for Narendra Nagar because of its scenic
beauty and its proximity to the plains of north India.
Between 1919 and 1936, the
town continued to grow. Residential and government buildings
were added.
Raja
Narendra Shah also has the Rishikesh-Narendra
Nagar-Tehri and the Rishikesh-Devprayag-Kirtinagar roads
constructed.
The neat layout of this erstwhile royal township is in
evidence even today. Some of the buildings such as the
hospital and the secretariat are still in use. The bazaar
buildings too
were built in 1919. They
earlier housed the king’s staff – the ground floor was used
to tether horses while the first floor was used for staff
quarters.
In the early 1900s, Narendra Nagar was a popular destination
for the British rulers of the time. The Palace 'Annexe' was
added to the original palace building in 1910 to house Lord
Linlithgow, the then Viceroy of India, and his
entourage who visited Narendra Nagar fairly often. Over the
years, the Palace has also hosted many distinguished guests
-- Late
Lal Bahadur Shastri
and Late Mrs. Indira Gandhi, Prime Ministers of India, and
spiritual leaders such as Ma Anandmayi and Swami Shivananda
as well as the last British Viceroy of India --
Lord Louis Mountbatten.
The Palace Annexe is now home to the resort Ananda in the Himalayas.
The late
Raja Manavendra Shah
took over the reigns of Tehri-Garhwal from his father Raja Narendra Shah
who abdicated due to poor health in 1946. The
province was eventually merged with the territory of Uttar
Pradesh shortly after India gained her independence.
For four decades, the town remained the headquarters of
District Tehri-Garhwal till, in 1989, New Tehri became the
headquarters.
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