One small town in Haryana hosted three battles that redirected Indian history
Panipat, north of Delhi, saw Babur found Mughal rule in 1526, Akbar crush a Hindu emperor in 1556 and an Afghan king defeat the Marathas in 1761. The surrounding land, now the state of Haryana, also holds Indus Valley towns with paved streets and drains older than any of those empires.
Haryana wraps around Delhi on three sides, which is why so much of it falls within the National Capital Region. That position has made Gurgaon one of India's leading technology and car-making hubs, while Faridabad is the most populous city. The state covers only about 1.5 percent of India's land, yet its economy is the 13th largest among the states, with the fifth-highest output per person.
Long before any capital stood nearby, people at Rakhigarhi in Hisar district and Bhirrana in Fatehabad district laid paved roads, dug drainage, stored rainwater on a large scale and worked bronze and precious metals. In the Vedic era the region belonged to the Kuru kingdom. Later, Harsha ruled northern India from Thanesar in the 7th century, and in 1398 Timur sacked Sirsa, Fatehabad, Kaithal and Panipat.
The story of Hemu is the most dramatic. A man from Rewari, he won 22 battles between 1553 and 1556 against Mughals and Afghans, beat Akbar's forces at Agra and Delhi, and was crowned at Purana Quila on 7 October 1556 under the old title Vikramaditya. Weeks later he lost the Second Battle of Panipat to Akbar, making him the last Hindu emperor of India.
Under British rule the area sat inside Punjab province, and after Partition it formed part of East Punjab. On 23 April 1966 a commission led by Justice JC Shah was set up to split Punjab along language lines, giving the Hindi-speaking south to a new state. Haryana was born on 1 November 1966. The commission wanted the tehsil containing Chandigarh for Haryana, but Chandigarh instead became a union territory serving as capital to both states. Most of Haryana lies on the fertile Ghaggar Plain, with only 4 percent under forest, and its highest point is Karoh Peak at 1,467 metres in the Sivalik Hills.
Source: Haryana
