Religious and Tourist Places of Haryana: Exam Notes

Haryana packs an unusual number of visitable places into a small state: the field of the Mahabharata, two battlefields that decided the fate of Delhi, a Mughal terraced garden, the only hill station the state has, and a chain of roadside tourist complexes named after birds. Questions from this chapter are almost always of the matching kind, place with district or place with the person who built it, so the safest way to revise is district by district.

Kurukshetra, the holiest tract

Kurukshetra is the centre of the state in religious terms, and it is a cluster of sites rather than one. Jyotisar is the spot where tradition holds that Krishna delivered the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna, marked by the ancient banyan called the Akshaya Vat and by a chariot sculpture. Brahma Sarovar is the largest tank, and the Gita Jayanti Mahotsav is held on its banks. Sannihit Sarovar is held to be the meeting place of seven Saraswatis, and bathing there on Amavasya is thought especially meritorious. The town of Thanesar holds the Sthaneshwar Mahadev temple and the Bhadrakali temple, counted among the shaktipeeths, and beside them stand two monuments of a different kind: Harsh ka Tila, the mound associated with Harshavardhana, and the tomb of Sheikh Chilli, the Mughal period teacher linked with Dara Shikoh. The district also has the Srikrishna Museum, the Panorama and Science Centre and the Kalpana Chawla planetarium, and the 48 kos parikrama marks out the wider sacred tract.

Panipat and the battlefield towns

Panipat carries the memory of three battles. Babur raised the Kabuli Bagh mosque after the first battle of 1526, in which Ibrahim Lodi was killed, and Ibrahim Lodi has a tomb in the town. Kala Amb marks the field of the third battle of 1761 between the Marathas and Ahmad Shah Abdali. Panipat is also a pilgrimage centre for the dargah of the Sufi saint Bu Ali Shah Qalandar, and it has a Devi temple of old standing.

Pinjore, Morni and the northern hills

The Pinjore Garden in Panchkula district, renamed the Yadavindra Garden after the Patiala ruler Yadavindra Singh, is a Mughal charbagh laid out in descending terraces by Nawab Fidai Khan, the foster brother of Aurangzeb; the Bhima Devi temple complex next to it, with its carved panels, is called the Khajuraho of north India. Morni Hills in the same district is the only hill station of Haryana, with the Tikkar Taal lakes below it. Panchkula also has the Mata Mansa Devi temple, built by the ruler of Manimajra in the early nineteenth century, and the Nada Sahib gurudwara, where Guru Gobind Singh halted after the battle of Bhangani. In Ambala district, Panjokhra Sahib is associated with Guru Har Krishan.

Yamunanagar, Hisar and the south

Yamunanagar holds Adi Badri, which tradition treats as the place where the Saraswati rises, Kapal Mochan, where a great fair is held on Kartik Purnima, and the Kalesar National Park with its sal forests. Hisar was founded as Hisar-e-Firoza by Firoz Shah Tughlaq in 1354, and his palace complex, the Gujari Mahal, the Jahaj Kothi and the Barsi Gate survive there; nearby are the Asigarh fort at Hansi, the Agroha mound sacred to the Agrawal community, and the Harappan site of Rakhigarhi. In the south, Narnaul in Mahendragarh district has the Jal Mahal built by Shah Quli Khan, the tomb of Ibrahim Khan Sur, Birbal ka Chhatta and the Chor Gumbad raised in the time of Firoz Shah Tughlaq, while Dhosi Hill on the Rajasthan border is identified with the ashram of the sage Chyavan.

Lakes, wetlands and the bird complexes

Faridabad has Surajkund, the old reservoir ascribed to the Tomar king Surajpal, where the international crafts mela is held every February, and the Badkhal lake beside it; the Nahar Singh palace at Ballabgarh recalls the raja hanged after 1857. Gurugram has the Sheetla Mata temple, the Damdama lake, the sulphur springs of Sohna and the Sultanpur National Park; Jhajjar has the Bhindawas wetland, and Rohtak has the Tilyar lake and the math of Baba Mast Nath at Asthal Bohar. Sultanpur and Bhindawas were both added to the Ramsar list of wetlands of international importance in 2021.

A habit of the state tourism department supplies examiners with an easy question: its tourist complexes are named after birds. Blue Jay stands at Samalkha, Skylark at Panipat, Kingfisher at Ambala, Magpie at Faridabad, Dabchick at Hodal and Jungle Babbler at Dharuhera, and the pattern runs through the rest of the chain as well.