Badrinath is a town and nagar panchayat in Chamoli district in the state of Uttarakhand, India. It is a Hindu holy place, and is one of the four sites in India's Char Dham pilgrimage. It is also part of India's Chota Char Dham pilgrimage circuit and gets its name from the Badrinath Temple.
Uttarakuru is the name of a dvipa ("continent") in ancient Hindu and Buddhist mythology as well as Jain cosmology. The Uttarakuru country or Uttara Kuru Kingdom and its people are sometimes described as belonging to the real world, whereas at other times they are mythical or otherworldly spiritual beings. The name Uttara Kuru means "North Kuru". The Kurus were a tribe during the Vedic civilization of India. The Uttara Kuru were therefore a population to the north of the Kurus, or north of the Himalayas.
Khasas were an ancient Indo-Aryan tribe and a late Janapada kingdom from Himalayan regions of northern Indian subcontinent mentioned in the various historical Indian inscriptions and ancient Indian Hindu and Tibetan literatures. European sources described the Khasa tribe living in the Northwest Himalayas and the Roman geographer Pliny The Elder specifically described them as "Indian people". They were reported to have lived around Gandhara, Trigarta and Madra Kingdom as per the Mahabharata.
Daradas were a people who lived north and north-west to the Kashmir valley. This kingdom is identified to be the Gilgit region, in the Gilgit-Baltistan region along the river Sindhu or Indus. They are often spoken along with the Kambojas. The Pandava hero Arjuna had visited this country of Daradas during his northern military campaign to collect tribute for Yudhishthira's Rajasuya sacrifice.
The Chinas, Cīna, or Chīnaḥ are a people mentioned in ancient Indian literature from the first millennium BC and first millennium AD, such as the Mahabharata, Laws of Manu, and the Puranic literature.
Trigarta kingdom was an ancient Indo-Aryan kingdom of western South Asia whose existence is attested during the Iron Age. It had its capitals at Prasthala, Multan and Kangra.
Madra Kingdom was a kingdom grouped among the western kingdoms in the epic Mahabharata. Its capital was Sagala in Madra region, modern Sialkot in the Punjab province of Pakistan. The Kuru king Pandu's (Pāṇḍu) second wife was from Madra kingdom and was called Madri. The Pandava twins, Nakula and Sahadeva, were her sons. Madri's brother Shalya was the king of Madra. Though affectionate to the Pandavas, he was tricked to give support to Duryodhana and fought against the Pandavas during the Kurukshetra War. He was killed by Yudhishthira, the eldest Pandava. Other than the Madra kingdom with Sagala as its capital, it is believed that there was a Western Madra and a Northern Madra.
The kingdom of Tushara, according to ancient Indian literature, such as the epic Mahabharata, was a land located beyond north-west India. In the Mahabharata, its inhabitants, known as the Tusharas, are depicted as mlechchas ("barbarians") and fierce warriors.
Sakas are described in Sanskrit sources as a Mleccha tribe grouped along with the Yavanas, Tusharas and Barbaras. There were a group of Sakas called Apa Sakas meaning water dwelling Sakas, probably living around some lake in central Asian steppes. Sakas took part in Kurukshetra War.
Hunas were a tribe close to Himalayas that, because of limited interaction with Indian kingdoms, were mentioned in the epic Mahabharata. They belonged to the Xinjiang province of China, east of Jammu-Kashmir. However, they were nomadic people who changed their settlements from time to time.
Hara-Huna was an ancient kingdom and inhabited by the Hara Hunas tribe close to the Himalayas who had limited interaction with the Indian kingdoms, thus they were identified in the epic Mahabharata.
The Keralas or Udra Keralas were a royal dynasty mentioned in Sanskrit epics of ancient India. In the Mahabharata, the Keralian Empire took part in the Kurukshetra War by feeding both armies. According to the Puranas, the navigators and survivors of the Yadavas of Dwaraka also settled in Kerala later. Some remnants of the Naga culture are also found here.
The Kirāta is a generic term in Sanskrit literature for people who had territory in the mountains, particularly in the Himalayas and Northeast India and who are believed to have been Sino-Tibetan in origin.
Kimpurusha Kingdom refers to the territory of a tribe called Kimpurushas who were one among the exotic tribes of ancient India. These exotic tribes lived in inaccessible regions like the Himalaya mountains.
Kirata Kingdom in Sanskrit literature and Hindu mythology refers to any kingdom of the Kirata people, who were dwellers mostly in the Himalayas. They took part in the Kurukshetra War along with Parvatas (mountaineers) and other Himalayan tribes.
Parvata Kingdom refers to the territory of a tribe known as Parvatas (Mountaineers), mentioned in the epic Mahabharata. Most of the descriptions of Parvata kingdom in the epic refer to a mountainous country in the Himalayas. Tribes belonging to other mountainous regions in the north west, west and the east of the Indo-Gangetic Plain were also known as Parvatas, when used as a collective name. Parvatas took part in the Kurukshetra War. The epic also mentions a sage named Parvata who was a companion of sage Narada.
Nepa was a mountainous kingdom mentioned in the ancient Sanskrit epic Mahabharata. Its modern equivalent is identified as the Kingdom of Nepal, a country located in the mountainous terrain of the Himalayas.
The Bahlikas were the inhabitants of Bahlika, mentioned in Atharvaveda, Mahabharata, Ramayana, Puranas, Vartikka of Katyayana, Brhatsamhita, Amarkosha etc. and in the ancient Inscriptions. The other variations of Bahlika are Bahli, Balhika, Vahlika, Valhika, Bahlava, Bahlam/Bahlim, Bahlayana and Bahluva.
Swargarohini is a mountain massif in the Saraswati (Bandarpunch) Range of the Garhwal Himalaya. It lies in the Uttarkashi District of the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, west of the Gangotri group of peaks. It comprises four separate peaks, the main peak Swargarohini I is the subject of this article.
The Himalayan country named Nepala with its capital in Kathmandu Valley was well-known in the Indian sub-continent by at least 2,500 years ago. Historical discussions on the etymology of Nepal incorporated elements of Hindu and Buddhist History. The origin of the term Nepal is an area of ongoing investigation. Multiple hypotheses have been put forward by modern scholars to varying level of support. It is generally accepted that Nepal and Newar—the latter refers to the ethnic group indigenous to the Kathmandu Valley—are different forms of the same word.
