0 Abode of Gods'
glittering townships of Rishikesh, Haridwar and Mussoorie
Darker the night grander the view. From Narendranagar onwards
lies Chamba (5,000 ft.) from where one route bifurcates towards
Mussoorie (63 km.) via Dhanotli. Chamba presents magnificent
view of the Banderpoonch range. Down below Chamba lies the
sprawling township of Tehri which was once capital of the
Panwar kings.
Tehri became the capital of Royal Garhwal after 1815 when
Britishers had wrested Pauri Garhwal. Tehri is a doomed town.
Here Bhilangna meets Bhagirathi and takes a sharp turn towards
Deoprayag where it meets and merges with the Alaknanda. In
recent times Tehri has come into light because of the gigantic dam
which is under construction here. The entire city will be submerged
under deep water. There is unfortunately lot of local resentment
against this dam because this will mean dislocation of hundreds-
and thousands of families. Government has provided alternative
site for them. From Tehri one route goes towards Kirtinagar
and merges at Srinagar on the Badrinath route and another route
goes towards Ghansali-Ghuttu and meets the main Rudraprayag
Kedarnath route near Tilwara.
Life in Tehri-Garhwal district is much more difficult due to
lack of forests, rocky terrain and shortage of rainfall as a result of
which people are generally poor and population is scarce. As
against this, Uttarkashi district is more green and prosperous due
to fertile valley of the Bhagirathi and Yamuna.
Uttarkashi
Puranas describe Uttarkashi as Varanasi that is situated between
'Varna' and 'Asi' rivers, hence the seat of Lord Shiva. It has been
forecasted in the scriptures that when Varanasi will loss its religious
sanctity, Uttarkashi will assume some importance. According to
another story, the Kiratarjunya battle also took place here. As
per Mahabharata "when Yudhistara was appointed heir apparent,
Duryodhana formed a nefarious scheme for killing all the five
sons of King Pandu. He (Yudhistara) with his brothers and
mother, was induced to pay a visit to Varanavrata where a house
of firewood and other inflammables material had been built for
their residence." This house of firewood (Lakshagrah) was pro-
bably located at Barahat The present Barahat has been referred