Hariana
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Hariana
A tract of country in the Punjab, lying between 28° 30' and 30° N. and 75" 45' and 76° 30' E., chiefly in the eastern half of Hissar District, but also comprising part of Rohtak District and of the States of Jmd and Patiala. It is in shape an irregular oval, with its long axis lying north-west and south-east. On the north-west it is bounded by the Ghaggar valley ; on the west, south-west, and south by the Hagar and Dhundauti, or sandy tracts which are the continuation of the Bikaner desert ; on the east by the jumna riverain ; and on the north- east by the Nardak country, from which it is divided by a line roughly coinciding with the alignment of the Southern Punjab Railway. The name of Mariana is most probably derived from //(r/v ('green '), and is reminiscent of a time when this was a rich and fertile tract.
Archaeo- logical remains show that the country watered by the SaraswatI was once the scene of a flourishing Hindu civilization ; and the records of Timur's invasion mention the sugar-cane jungles of 'J'ohana, a proof that at any rate the valley of the Ghaggar was at that time of high fertility, though the country near Hissar seems already to have been dry and arid. The chief events in the history of the tract will be found in the article on Hiss.^R District. At the end of the eighteenth century Hari-^na was a veritable no-man's-land, acknowledging no master and tempting none. Lying at the point where the three powers, Sikh, Bhatti, and Maratha, met, it covered an area of nearly 3,000 square miles of depopulated country. Its thousand towns and villages had once produced a revenue of 14 lakhs, but now yielded less than 3 lakhs. The tract thus lay open to attack; and in 1797-8 the adventurer George Thomas, who held the fief of Jhajjar from the Marathas, took part of Kanhari and overran Hariana as far as the Ghaggar. At Hansi, which he found a desert, he established his capital, with a mint and arsenal. He next planned the conquest of the Punjab to the Indus, and actually advanced as far as the Sutlej. His successes appeared to have firmly established his power, and he built Georgegarh or Jahazgarh ; but in 1801 he succumbed after a heroic struggle to the overwhelming power of Perron, De Boigne's successor in Sindhia's service. After the capture of Hansi by Bourquin, Hariana passed for a short time into the hands of the Marathas, and in 1803 came under British rule ; a native governor was placed in charge of the Districts of Hariana and Rohtak, but British authority was not actually established till 1810.
