kingdom · South Asia
Kumaon Kingdom
Origins
According to tradition the Chand dynasty was founded by Som Chand, a Rajput prince from the plains, who established himself at Champawat in eastern Kumaon. The early chronology is legendary, but by the 15th and 16th centuries the Chands had subdued rival hill chiefs, and Kalyan Chand moved the capital to Almora around 1563.
Rule and society
The rajas ruled a society of farming villages on terraced slopes, administered through local headmen and land grants to temples and Brahmins. They warred with the neighbouring Garhwal Kingdom and with the Rohilla State in the plains. Baz Bahadur Chand, a contemporary of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, extended the kingdom to the Tibetan border and is credited with building temples, including the Bhimeshwar temple at Bhimtal.
Decline and legacy
Weakened by court intrigue in the 18th century, Kumaon was conquered by the Gorkha army of the Kingdom of Nepal, which took Almora in 1790. After the Anglo-Nepalese War of 1814 to 1816 the region passed to British control and is now part of Uttarakhand.
Lineage
On the connections map
Open the full map →Connections (1)
- Kumaon Kingdom was conquered by Gorkha Kingdom1791 CE
Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Kumaon Kingdom. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/kumaon-kingdom
- MLA
- “Kumaon Kingdom.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/kumaon-kingdom. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Kumaon Kingdom.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/kumaon-kingdom.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Kumaon Kingdom’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/kumaon-kingdom (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻