Sirsa

Sirsa is a city and a municipal council in Sirsa district in the westernmost region of the Indian state of Haryana, bordering Punjab and Rajasthan. It is located near to Thar desert. It is located 250 kilometres north-west of New Delhi and 260 kilometers south-west of state capital Chandigarh. Sirsa's nearest cities include Hisar, Fatehabad, Ellenabad, Bhadra, Nohar, Mandi Dabwali and Hanumangarh. Its history dates back to the time of the Mahabharata. At one time, the Sarasvati River flowed in this area.

Name
Sirsa has been identified with two earlier names: Sarsūti in medieval sources and Śairīṣaka in ancient literature. Sarsūti appears to come from the name of the Sarasvati River, which once flowed near Sirsa. Ancient texts mentioning Śairīṣaka include the Mahābhārata, where it is mentioned as one of the places conquered by Nakula; the Aṣṭādhyāyī of Pāṇini; and the Divyāvadāna. The name Śairīṣaka may be derived from the siris tree, Albizia lebbeck, which is common in the area.

A few folk etymologies also exist for the name. One derives the name from that of a mystic named Baba Sarsain Nath, but there is no historical evidence for this. Another local tradition holds that the town and its fort were founded by a 7th-century king named Saras and subsequently named after him.

History
There are two adjacent archaeological mounds on the southwest side of present-day Sirsa, but they have not been excavated by archaeologists, so the origins of the settlement at Sirsa are unknown. However, some isolated discoveries have been made at the Sirsa mounds. The oldest find is a terracotta toy wheel, found in 1988, that archaeologists believe belongs to the Iron Age Painted Grey Ware culture (c. 1200-600 BCE). Four terracotta figures, including three depicting women and one depicting a tree (possibly a kalpataru motif), are dated to roughly the time of the Maurya and Shunga dynasties. Numerous copper coins of the Yaudheya and Kushan periods have been found at Sirsa, along with various terracotta objects. These include a statute of the Buddha, a 0.6-m-tall sculpture of the goddess Ganga on her mount, a mukhalinga depicting Shiva, a figure of an elephant with a man and woman riding on top, and various others. Three gold coins from the Gupta Empire (one depicting Samudragupta and an unnamed queen consort, one depicting Chandragupta II, and one of Kumaragupta I) have also been found at Sirsa, along with numerous terracotta objects.

Another discovery from Sirsa is a stone slab inscribed in Sanskrit with a king's eulogy. The king's name, along with most of the composition, is lost. This inscription is dated to the 5th or 6th century.

Another stone inscription found at the Sirsa mound dates from the 9th century, during the reign of Mihira Bhoja. Although a large part is missing, the surviving part records the construction of a brick temple to Shiva by a Pāśupata acharya named Nīlakaṇṭha.

According to the Tarikh-i-Firishta, the Ghaznavid sultan Mas'ud I captured Sirsa during his campaign to conquer Hansi in 1037. His troops apparently encountered an abundance of sugar cane growing at Sirsa, which they used to fill the moat around the town's fortress in order to attack it. However, subsequent Ghaznavid infighting seems to have enabled the Tomara dynasty to recapture Sirsa, since coins of Tomara rulers both before and after 1037 have been found at Sirsa.

The historian Hasan Nizami mentioned Sirsa (as Sarsuti) as the place where Prithviraj Chauhan was captured after the Second Battle of Tarain in 1192. From this point on, Sirsa came under Muslim control. It constituted an iqta, in this context meaning an administrative division, under the Delhi Sultanate. Ibn Battuta visited Sirsa in 1341, during the reign of the Delhi sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq; he mentioned that it grew a lot of rice, some of which was exported to Delhi. Also during the 1300s, the Iranian historian Wassaf mentioned Sirsa (as Sarsuti) as one of the major cities of northern India.

Sirsa is listed in the Ain-i-Akbari as a pargana under the sarkar of Hisar, producing a revenue of 4,361,368 dams for the imperial treasury and supplying a force of 5000 infantry and 500 cavalry.

Geography
Sirsa is located at 29.53°N, 75.02°W. It has an average elevation of 205 metres (672 feet).

Demographics
As of 2011 Indian Census, Sirsa had a total population of 200,034, of which 105,378 were males and 94,656 were females. Population within the age group of 0 to 6 years was 22,804. The total number of literates in Sirsa was 144,225, which constituted 72.1% of the population with male literacy of 76.0% and female literacy of 67.7%. The effective literacy rate of 7+ population of Sirsa was 81.4%, of which male literacy rate was 86.2% and female literacy rate was 76.0%. The Scheduled Castes population was 42,967. Sirsa had 39,689 households in 2011.

Air Force station
Sirsa has an air base of Indian Air Force named Sirsa Air Force Station and this is one of the most important Air Force Station of India near Pakistan border.

Dera Sacha Sauda
The non-governmental organization Dera Sacha Sauda, established in 1948 by ascetic Mastana Balochistani, has its headquarters in Sirsa.

Shri Tara Baba Kutiya (Tarakeswar Dham)
Shri Tara Baba Kutiya, also known as Tarakeswar Dham, was constructed in the year 2003 with help from Sirsa MLA Gopal Goyal Kanda. It is near Ramnagarian village on Haryana State Highway 23 (Sirsa-Ellenabad Road). It has a statue of Shiva and an idol of Nandi.

Abubshaher: Abubshaher Wildlife Sanctuary is located in Sirsa district, which is the largest wildlife sanctuary of Haryana. Abubshaher Wildlife Sanctuary is also the birthplace of the black pheasant.