History of Haryana

The mostly Hindi-speaking eastern portion of Punjab became Haryana, while mostly Punjabi-speaking western portion remained as Punjab. Today, Haryana has the vast majority of the ethnic Hindu population. Chandigarh, on the linguistic border, was made a union territory, that serves as capital of both these states. Chandigarh was due to transfer to Punjab alone in 1986, but the transfer has been delayed while agreement is reached on the districts of Punjab that should be transferred to Haryana in exchange.

Haryana, with more than 5000 year old history, is the cradle of Vedic and Hindu civilization. It was here 5000 years ago that Lord Krishna preached Gita at the start of the battle of Mahabharata. Before the Mahabharata war, a battle of ten kings took place in the Kurukshetra region in the Saraswati valley. Mahabharata (3102 BC) mentions Haryana as Bahudhhanyaka, ‘land of plentiful grains’ and Bahudhana, ‘land of immense riches’. The word ‘Hariana’ occurs in a Sanskrit inscription dated 1328 AD kept in Delhi Museum which refers to this region as “The heaven on earth”. It was here that the Aryan culture took birth and matured.

Excavations in places like Naurangabad, and Mittathal in Bhiwani, Kunal in Fatehbad, Agroha near Hissar, Rakhigarhi in Jind, Rukhi in Rohtak and Banawali in Sirsa have unearthed evidence of pre-Harappan and Harappan culture. Findings of pottery, sculpture and jewellery in sites at Kurukshetra, Pehowa, Tilpat and Panipat have proved the historicity of the Mahabharat war. These places are mentioned in the Mahabharat as Prithudaka (Pehowa), Tilprastha (Tilput), Panprastha (Panipat) and Sonprastha (Sonipat).

Haryana state came into existence on 1st November, 1966.