Imperial Gazetteer Punjab Delhi Division

· 1907 · Public domain (published pre-1930) · archive.org ↗

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2issAft; time of Rabar’s invasion, and as the head-quarters of a sarkar

3i strict. was 0 f considerable importance under the Mughals. The town

4was plundered by the Sikhs on several occasions between 1754

5and 1768 and after the battle of Jlnd was occupied by Amar

6Singh of Patiala, who built a fort. Hissar was depopulated by

7the famine of 1781, and was taken possession of by George

8Thomas. The inhabitants began to return, . and when it

9passed to the British in 1803 the town was rapidly recovering.

10In 1857 detachments of the Mariana Light Infantry and 14th

11Irregular Cavalry stationed at Hissar mutinied, and the Collector

12and 1 1 other Europeans and native Christians were murdered.

13The chief relic of antiquity is the fort built by Firoz Shah

14largely with materials taken from Hindu or Jain temples.. Another

15interesting building is the Jahaj, apparently once a Jain temple

16converted into a mosque, and used as a residence . by George

17Thomas, of whose Christian name its present title is a corrup-

18tion. Near Hissar is a handsome group of tombs erected to

19officers who fell in HumayuiVs campaign in Gujrat in 1 S 35 * ■

20The trade of the town is unimportant, being confined to

21cotton and reel pepper, but it contains a 1 ;rge cotton - ginning ^and

22pressing factory which in 1904 employed 397 hands. . I he

23municipality was created in 1867. 1 he average municipal

24receipts and the expenditure for the jo years ending 1902-03

25were Ks. 28,700 and 29,300 respectively, and its income and

26expenditure in 1903-04 were Rs 24,600 and Rs. 27,300 respec-

27tively, the chief source of income being octroi. The town possesses

28an angle -vernacular high school managed by the Education

29department, and a civil hospital

30Sirsa Town. — The head-quarters of the Sirsa sub-divi-

31sion and tahsll, Hissar District, Punjab, situated in 29 0 32' N»

32and 75 0 2' E., on the Rewari-Bh=tinda branch of the Rajputana-

33Malvia Railway, on the north side of a dry bed of the Ghaggar.

34Population (sgoi) 15,800. The old town of Sirsa or Sarsuti

35is of great antiquity, and tradition ascribes its origin to an

36eponymous Raja Saras, who built the town and fort about 1,300

37years ago. Under the name of Sarsuti it is mentioned as the

38place near which Prithwi Raj was captured after his defeat by

39Muhammad of Ghor in r'192, and according to Wassafitwas.

40in the 14th century one of the most important towns -in Upper

41India. It was taken by Timur, the inhabitants fleeing before

42him, and is mentioned in the reign of Mubarak Shah as the

43rendezvous of the expedition against the rebel fortress of Sirhind.

44In the reign of Sher Shah Sirsa became for a time the head-

45quarters of Rao Kalyan Singh of Bikaner who had been driven

46from his country by the Jodhpur Rao. In the i8th century