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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.
How To
Get There
Rail: The district is
connected by rail network.
Road : Fatehabad is well
connected with the neighboring
cities by road.
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