¤ Ancient History

The foothills of Himachal were inhabited by people from the Indus Valley Civilization which flourished between 2700 and 1750BC.
On the fringes of this great civilization lived the original inhabitants of the land, the Kols and Mundas. These people were variously called Dasas, Dasyus and Nishads in the Vedas.
The Vedas are the oldest compositions of the Aryans, a group which came in around 1500BC from Central Asia and settled in the fertile plains of the Punjab.

In eastern Himachal, in the area that is now Lahaul, Kinnaur and Spiti, dwelled the Chamangs and Damanags. It was around that time that an offshoot of the Aryan race, the Khashas, entered the Himachal arena and became the new masters of the land. Another phase of migration took place with the coming of the Bhotas and Kiratas, the Mongoloids.

¤ Ancient Mythology Depicts Ancient History of Himachal

Much information about Himachal’s ancient history is given in epics like the Mahabharata and the Ramayana and other scriptures like the Vedas and the Puranas.
The Mahabharata mentions the janapadas (some sort of a kingdom) of Kuluta (Kullu), Trigarta (Kangra), Kulind (Shimla hills and Sirmaur), Yugandhar (Bilaspur and Nalagarh), Gobdika (Chamba) and Audumbar (Pathankot).

The Rig Veda mentions the rivers which flow through Himachal. The text also talks about Shambar, the powerful king of these hills before the advent of the Aryans, and his 99 strong forts in the region between the Beas and the Yamuna rivers.
His war with the Aryan chief, Divodas, lasted 12 long years, wherein the latter emerged victorious. The Puranas too, mention Himachal, calling it all sorts of nice names.

One significant happening during the time of the great war of Mahabharata (circa 1400BC) was the founding of the Katoch monarchy of Kangra by King Susharma Chandra. This Susharma Chandra is supposed to have sided with the Kaurava borthers in their war against the Pandavas. Kangra was probably named as Bhim Kot (fort of Bhim) after Bhima, one of the Pandavas.