The Joshis, Pants and Pandes, Brahmins of Kumaon Hills, trace their roots to the Konkan region of Maharashtra. Most of them migrated to and settled in Kannauj, which was then a centre of Brahmanical influence. Kannauj is frequently referred to in the the epic Mahabharata and is alluded to by Patañjali in the second century B.C. In the 17th / 18th Century they again migrated from Kannauj and settled in the Kumaon hills of the Himalayas. The reasons for migration are lost in History, but it may have occurred because by the early years of the 13th Century Kannauj was incorporated into the Delhi Sultanate and by the 17th Century had lost all its relevance.