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.
