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Haryana Special: History of Haryana

By BYJU'S Exam Prep

Updated on: September 25th, 2023

General Knowledge of Haryana is very important for Haryana Teacher Eligibility Test. Many Students are demanding Haryana GK notes, so here we are starting Haryana Special Series for HTET Exam. In this series, we will be covered all important notes related to Haryana state General Knowledge.

 

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History of Haryana:

Ancient India: 

  • In the Ancient Era, many sites of the Indus Valley Civilization have been found in the Haryana region like Rakhigarhi – home to the largest IVC site and also one of the oldest sites of IVC over 5000 years old (Hisar District), Naurangabad (Bhiwani district), Mittathal (Bhiwani district), Kunal (Fatehabad district), Banawali (Sirsa district), Rukhi (Rohtak district), etc.. especially along the banks of river Saraswati.
  • Some archaeologists believe that Rakhigarhi may be the origin place of the Indus Valley Civilization which then moved towards the western side.
  • Evidence of paved roads, a drainage system, a large-scale rainwater collection storage system, terracotta brick and statue production, and skilled metal working (in both bronze and precious metals) have been uncovered.
  • The Vedic civilization between 1600 BC to 600 BC surrounded this region with rivers and doabs as the centre, as the practice of agriculture and settled patterns flourished.
  • Rig Veda hymns were composed in this region in the early Vedic times.
  • It is the place where the Aryans chanted their sacred mantras.
  • South Haryana was home to many Vedic Scriptures and many documents dated 10,000 years old were found and named to be Manu and Bhrigu also known to be documents of Flood time.
  • The epic Mahabharata was written by saint Ved Vyas in this region in Sanskrit.
  • Haryana is mentioned as “Bahudhhanyaka – Land of Plentiful Grains” and “Bahudhana – Land of Immense riches in the epic Mahabharatha”.
  • Many ancient texts of Hinduism mentioned the boundaries of Kurukshetra approximately as the same as the state of Haryana.
  • The places of Haryana which are mentioned in the Mahabharata are Gurgaon – the village of Guru Dronacharya; Sonprastha – Sonipat; Panprastha – Panipat; Tilprastha – Tilput; Prithudaka – Pehowa; etc…
  • Findings of pottery, sculpture and jewellery in sites at Pehowa, Kurukshetra, Tilpat and Panipat have proved the historicity of the Mahabharat war
  • It is the place where Krishna preached Arjuna the great Bhagavad Gita.
  • The Kurukshetra war was fought between the Kauravas and the Pandavas for eighteen days to select the king of the throne of Hastinapur in the city of Kurukshetra.
  • The city of merchants near Hisar called Agroha was established by Maharaja Agrasen. Every immigrant of the city was given a brick and a rupee by all the residents of the city to build a house and start a business for self-employment.
  • This place had become an important region in the Mauryan empire and was invaded later by foreign invaders, especially the Kushans.
  • Since the third century BC, this place became prominent in the Gupta era followed by the Harshavardhan time.

Medieval India: 

  • Haryana was called the “Gateway of North India” as many decisive and seminal battles between the native rulers and the invaders have taken place here which changed the course of the history of India.
  • As years rolled by, successive streams of Huns, Turks and Afghans invaded India and decisive battles were fought on this land.
  • After the downfall of the Gupta empire in the middle of the 6th century AD north India was again split into several kingdoms.
  • The Huns established their supremacy over Punjab. It was after this period that one of the greatest Kings of ancient India, Harshvardhan began his rule. He became the King of Thanesar (Kurukshetra) in 606 AD and later went on to rule most of north India.
  • In the 14th century, the Tomar kings led an army through this region to Delhi.
  • In the seventh century AD, King Harshavardhana established his capital at Thanesar near Kurukshetra. Since then this region was strategically important for the north Indian rulers, even though the centre changed to Kannauj.
  • In the 12th century, AD forts were established at Hansi and Taraori by the king Prithviraj Chauhan.
  • The second battle of Tarain took place here in the year 1192, as a result, Muhammed Ghori conquered this region.
  • In the 13th century, Delhi Sultanate established its rule in North India in which Haryana remained a strategic region, especially for battles.
  • The earliest reference to ‘Haryana’ occurs in a Sanskrit inscription dated 1328 AD kept in Delhi Museum, which refers to this region as The heaven on earth, indicating that it was fertile and relatively peaceful at that time. 
  • This region was fortified by a fort at Hisar which was built by Firoz Shah Tuglaq in 1354.
  • Many canals were built during the Delhi Sultanate period which are called Rajawahas in Indo-Persian languages.
  • Three battles in Panipat which changed the history of India took place in this region.
  • The first battle of Panipat took place in 1526 in which the central Asian ruler Babur defeated the Delhi Sultanate ruler Ibrahim Lodi thus establishing the Mughal Empire in India.
  • In the Second Battle of Panipat(November 5, 1556), Akbar’s general Bairam Khan defeated Hemu
  • The Third Battle of Panipat was fought in 1761 between the Afghan warlord Ahmad Shah Abdali and the Marathas under Sadashivrao Bhau of Pune. Ahmad Shah won decisively, on January 13, 1761.

Modern India:

  • During British rule, this region has been one of the nerve centres of the Great Revolt of 1857 and acted as a centripetal force for gathering the mass and revolting against the British Government.
  • The later British government made this region a strategic defensive location to tackle future revolts.
  • National Leaders from the state of Haryana: Babu Dayal Sharma, Lala Shyam Sharma, Heera Singh, Dr Madharam, etc.
  • After independence Haryana was a part of the Punjab state. In 1965 Hukam Singh Parliamentary committee gave the recommendation to separate the Hindi Speaking part from Punjab as the state of Haryana.
  • In 1966, the Indian government set up the Shah Commission to demarcate the boundary between the two states.
  • Based on the recommendation of the Shah Commission some districts of the Punjab state have become the new state called Haryana.
  • Considering Rich Heritage and economic development Haryana became a separate state.

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Haryana Special: History of Haryana

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