Pahari

Pahari, meaning the speech of the mountains, is the Northern Indo-Aryan dialect continuum of the lower Himalayas, running from Nepal through Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh into Jammu.

Scholars divide it into eastern, central and western groups: the central group includes Garhwali and Kumaoni, while the western, often called Himachali, includes Kangri and Dogri. Mountain valleys kept communities apart, so each district developed its own variety, and some western tongues developed tonal contrasts.

These highlands were long ruled by small Rajput hill houses, among them the Katoch rajas of Kangra, whose fort above Nagarkot held out against every attacker until the Mughal army of Jahangir took it in 1622. Pahari languages are written in the Devanagari script and draw on the same Middle Indo-Aryan heritage as the plains languages below them.