The state of

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several peaks ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

has been considered to be inhabited by humans since the origin of civilization. It has a rich and varied history which can be divided into several distinct eras.

Prehistory and protohistory

Many evidences have been came under consideration that nearly 2 million years ago man lived on the foothills of

. Some of these places are- * The Bangana valley of Kangra * Sirsa valley of

Nalagarh Nalagarh is a city and a municipal committee, near the city of Solan in Solan district in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. Geography Nalagarh is a gateway to Himachal Pradesh in North India, from Shimla, from Delhi and from Chandigar ...

* Markanda valley of Sirmour The foothills of the state are thought to be inhabited by the people from

Indus valley civilization The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form 2600 BCE to 1900&n ...

which flourished between the timeperiod of 2250 B.C. to 1750 B.C. People of Indus valley civilization pushed the original inhabitants of Ganga plains also known as '' Kolorian people'' towards the north. They moved towards the hills of

where they could led a comfortable life and preserve their way of living. In the

Vedas upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the ...

these have been referred as the '' Dasas'', ''Dasyus'' and '' Nishadas'' while later they have been known as the '' Kinnars'', '' Nagas'' and '' Yakshas''. The ''

Kols The Kol people referred to tribals of Chotanagpur in Eastern Parts of India. The Mundas, Oraons, Hos and Bhumijs were called Kols by British. It also refers to some tribe and caste of south-east Uttar Pradesh. They are mostly landless and depend ...

'' or ''

Mundas The Munda people are an Austroasiatic speaking ethnic group of India. They predominantly speak the Mundari language as their native language, which belongs to the Munda subgroup of Austroasiatic languages. The Munda are found mainly concentra ...

'' are considered to be the original migrants to the hills of present Himachal. The second stage of migrants came in the form of '' Mongoloid people'' known as '' Bhotas'' and '' Kiratas''. At last the third and most significant wave of migrants in the form of the ''

Aryan Aryan or Arya (, Indo-Iranian *''arya'') is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' (*''an-arya''). In Ancient India, the term ' ...

s'' came into being, who left their

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

n home. These laid down the base for the

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

and

culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...

References

{{History HP History of Himachal Pradesh