Searching Mysterious Past of Berinag .........

Searching Mysterious Past of Berinag .........
It was year 1982 , on an early Sunday morning, I , alongwith few of my friends, decided to trek from Pithoragarh to Gangolihat via Chandak . It was not a well defined path, trek descending to Ramgar , thereafter again scaling up to Gangolihat on pedestrian treks used by villagers. While the distance of Gangolihat from Pithoragarh by car or bus is 83 km , the pedestrian trek we took was about half a distance , ie around 40 km. We started around 7 am , up and down on narrow trek , it was very very tiring , but with dramatically changing landscapes, friendly and hospitable villagers enroute did not allowed us to feel that fatigue, we reached our destination by 6.30 evening . Viola, finally we made it! We were in Gangolihat , started looking for a place to spend night somewhere, a gentleman suggested that there is a good forest guest house in Berinag only an hour away , a jeep stopped at pan-cigarette shop , the jeep driver was cool man , we got lift in that jeep , so in another 1.30 hours , we reached Berinag.
When we got up next morning, we had enchanting view of snow capped peaks. the mind simply filled with celestial joy , feeling the purest air while enjoying panoramic view of the  Himalayas, lofty  Panchachuli and Nanda Devi peaks.
Berinag during eighties was a very small helmet , but had been very famous for the quality tea leaves procured from its tea estates during British Raj . There was a time when in London’s tea market Berinag tea used to fetch premium price. We could see terraced tea gardens spread on the hilly slopes spread miles together.
There was not even a single  restaurant in Berinag , we took tea, parathas with kakdi raita sitting at wooden bench in front of a tapri chai wala. The vendor suggested us to visit Bedinag temple devoted to Nag Devta around 1.5 km from the village and situated at the top of Berinag Hill. The view from temple was even better. Here we come to know that this Bedinag temple is not a lone Nag Temple, it is one of the eight temples in the Kumaon region devoted to Nags viz.,  Dhaulinag (Dhavalnag), Kalinag (Kaliyanag), Feninag (Faninag), Bashukinag (Vasukinag), Pinglenag and Harinag.
The history of the temple is not known clearly. But we were  told that the temple is too old that one of Nepali king presented silver bells in  10th century.
Another interesting finding from that visit was the old belief  prevailing in the region - the area once inhibited by a mysterious race known as the Nagas. They were evidently a race for whom the hooded snake was sacred and later legends have identified the members of the tribe with their emblem. While writing the history of India, Wheeler (as cited by Walton 1910) described them in the following words, “In Garhwal we have the traces of the Nagas in the names of pattis Nagpur and Urgam and the universal tradition of their residence in the valley of the Alaknanda. At the present day, Sheshnag is honoured at Pandukeshwar, Bhakal Nag at Ratgaon, Sangal Nag at Talor, Banpur Nag at Margaon, Lohandea Nag at Jelam in the Niti valley and Pushkara Nag at Nagnath in Nagpur.”
In Kumaon Nag tribe used to live in the
area between Patalbhuwaneshar and Nakuri. However, there are no descendent of Nags now existing the modern society of Kumaon and they are believed to be  merged with ‘Khas’ people.
It is also believed that Nag people were from the other side of himalaya who has Nag as their emblem. In ancient scriptures like puranas, nag are described as human being. It is also mentioned that the civilised kingdoms made many attempts to destroy Nag tribe. A large number of Nag were killed in ‘Khandav Van”. Pandava defeated them in
Magadh. King Janmejay is said to have performed a ‘Yagna’ giving the ‘ahuti’ of nags. Lond Krishna chased them from the banks of Yamuna and made them  to hide in the dense forests land of present day Uttarakhand. Powerful Aryans sometime made ‘Gandharva Vivah’ with the young girls of nag clan. In Mahabharata, Arjun performed gandharva vivah with a nag girl named ‘Ulomi’. That piece of information thrilled us to explore more about that lost part of Nag Tribe. But no way, from next day onward we were again busy in our mundane world of Banking !