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Places
to Visit in Haryana
Fatehbad Tourism
The district Fatehbad, Haryana was formed on 15 July, 1997. The district headquarter
is situated in Fatehbad town. Other smaller towns are Tohana, Ratia, Bhuna and
Bhattu. The total area of Fatehbad district is 2,415 sq km and its population
is 6,15,000. There are facilities for stay at PWD rest house, HSEB rest house,
market committee rest house and dharamsalas. The town is well provided with
schools, college, hospital and other basic necessities.
The Fatehbad town was founded by the emperor Firoze Shah Tughlaq and named
after his son Fateh Khan in 1352 AD. The site on which the town was founded
was a hunting ground. He dug a channel from the river Ghaggar in order to
supply the town with water. He also built a fort which is now in ruins, the
fortification walls can be seen on the east. of the town. He also built three
forts in the neighboring villages in the name of his three sons. The old town
was surrounded by a wall which has been dismantled to a great extent except
near the fort.
Formerly, Fatehbad was an important trade center for the export of surplus grain
but with the construction of Rewari-Bhatinda railway line, which runs about
20 km to the west of the town, the trade shifted to Bhattu. But the town assumed
greater importance after Independence when metalled roads provided important
link and the earlier importance of the town was revived.
The two important monuments in Fatehbad are the Lat and the Humayun Mosque.
Lat or a stone pillar measuring about 5 m in height and 1. 90 m in circumference
at the base. It was erected in the center of an Idgah. The lower portion of
the pillar is a mono-block of light buff sandstone and is possibly the remaining
part of the pillar that lies in the mosque at Hissar. It is more than likely
that both these pillars once made a single monolithic pillar which was possibly
erected by Ashoka at Agroha or Hansi. Firoze Shah Tughlaq had a craze for taking
away such columns and transplanting them among his favorite complexes. The Ashokan
epigraph that was once engraved on the pillar was systematically chiseled off
for writing the Tughlaq inscription recording the genealogy of Firoze Shah in
beautiful Tughra Arabic characters carved in high belief.
There are two inscriptions, one on a light colored rectangular sandstone studded
into the left of the screen-wall of Idgah, immediately behind or to the west
of lat, praising the emperor Humayun and the other one is on a rectangular sand-stone
placed on the outer wall of the mosque enclosure and contains a well-known invocation
to Ali in Arabic. The mosque can still be seen in good conditions but lies in
disuse.
Humayun Mosque is a small and a beautiful mosque. The legend assigns the association
of the mosque to the Mughal Emperor Humayun who on his flight after his defeat
at the hands of Sher Shah Suri happened to pass through Fatehbad on Friday and
is said to have prayed at this mosque. The inscription praising Emperor Humayun
was originally found here and later studded into the screen-wall of the Idgah.
The mosque is said to have been repaired by one Nur Rehmat in the early eighties
of the last century.
Two important archaeological sites have been found in this district. They are
the Kunal Mound and the Banawali Mound. Both these sites seem to be a part of
the Saraswati civilization of the Vedic times. The ancient mound of Banawali
previously called Vanawali, lies 14 kms, north-west of Fatehbad on the right
bank of the Rangoi Nala at 29 37" 5' north latitude and 75 23",6'
cast longitude. This proto-historic mound spread over an area of One sq. km,
rise to a height of about 10 m due to successive settlements on the earlier
rubble.
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