Category:Dwarahat

Dwarahat 

human settlement
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Instance of	human settlement
Location	Almora district, Kumaon division, Uttarakhand, India
Population	2,543 (2001)
Area	2.87 km²
Elevation above sea level	1,510 ±1 m
29° 46′ 33″ N, 79° 25′ 54″ E
Authority file  Q1524687 VIAF ID: 139824846 Library of Congress authority ID: no00030453 National Library of Israel J9U ID: 987007471501205171 Reasonator Scholia Wikidocumentaries PetScan statistics WikiMap Locator tool KML file WikiShootMe OpenStreetMap Search depicted

Dwarahat is a town and nagar panchayat in the foothills of Almora district in the central Himalayan state of Uttarakhand. It is about 37 km from Ranikhet, and an important cultural, historic, educational and trade center of Uttarakhand.

Dwarahat is a historic site in Uttarakhand with many groups of Hindu temples built and restored between the 8th and the 16th century. These temples are attributed to various Hindu kings and queens from different dynasties, particularly those from the Katyuri dynasty for whom Dwarahat was the capital. Totaling about 55 Hindu temples, they are notable as central Himalayan temples with distant parts of India. For example, the Gujardeo group illustrates Maru-Gurjara architecture found in and near Gujarat – another testament to the flow of ideas across long distances in medieval India. The Dwarahat temples were reduced to ruins by Delhi Sultanate and later the Mughals. Some were restored after the 15th century, and more recently in the 21st century by regional Hindu community and the ASI.

Dwarahat is celebrated for its medieval Hindu temples and monasteries set midst the scenic Himalayan foothills, and the town's name is derived from "Dwar" and "Hari", which implies it is “Way to Heaven.” The temple groups are dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu, Devi, Surya and Vedic deities – thus covering all the major Hindu traditions. The earliest studies and photographs of Dwarahat ruins were published in early 20th-century.

The most important temple groups in Dwarahat include – Badrinath group, Gujjardev group, Maniyan temples, Ratandev group, Mrityunjay group, Katchery Deval and Vandev temples.