Baijnath

Baijnath stands beside the Gomati River in the Katyur valley of Kumaon. Once known as Kartikeyapura, it was the royal seat of the Katyuri kings, whose realm extended across parts of Garhwal, Kumaon and Doti. Ancient stone temples still remain beside the river, preserving the religious life of a town that was once a Himalayan mountain capital.

After the Katyuri kingdom fragmented in the thirteenth century, descendants of its rulers continued to hold Baijnath as one of several smaller principalities. In 1565 Kalyan Chand of Almora annexed it to the kingdom of Kumaon. Gorkhali armies advancing from Nepal overran Kumaon in 1791, and following the Anglo-Nepalese War the territory was ceded to the East India Company under the Treaty of Sugauli in 1816.