Haryana

Modern Indian state that surrounds
Delhi, the nation’s capital, in every
direction but the east. Haryana is one of
the so-called linguistic states formed
after Indian independence, to unite
people with a common language and
culture (in this case, Hindi) under one
state government. Haryana was created
in 1966, from the Hindi-speaking
regions of the former Punjab state. It
has traditionally been an important
agricultural region, since the land is fertile and productive, but more recently it
has also benefited from the attempt to
create “satellite cities” around Delhi, in
order to spread out the development in
the capital region. These efforts have
greatly raised the land values in the
areas closest to the capital. Aside from
this localized land boom, Haryana is a
largely rural state.
Haryana’s major religious sites,
which are right next to one another, are
Kurukshetra and Thanesar. The former
is cited as the battleground for the war
described in the epic Mahabharata; the
latter is named as the place that the god
Shiva was worshiped by the Pandavas,
the Mahabharata’s protagonists.
From a true historical perspective,
the level plains around the town of
Panipat have seen three decisive battles
that influenced the course of Indian history. In 1526, Babar, a central Asian
monarch who had been displaced from
his own homeland in Afghanistan,
crushed the Lodis to end the Lodi
dynasty and establish his own Moghul
dynasty. In 1556 Babar’s grandson
Akbar decimated the Sur dynasty, which
had temporarily occupied the Moghul
capitals at Delhi and Agra, and thus
reestablished Moghul rule. In 1761 an
invading Afghan army defeated the
Marathas, ending the period of Maratha
territorial expansion. For more information, an accessible reference is Christine
Nivin et al., India. 8th ed., Lonely
Planet, 1998.