Rohtak

Rohtak (, roɦ.t̪ək) is a city and the administrative headquarters of the Rohtak district in the Indian state of Haryana. It lies north-west of New Delhi and south of the state capital Chandigarh on NH 9 (old NH 10). Rohtak forms a part of the National Capital Region (NCR) which helps the city in obtaining cheap loans for infrastructure development from the NCR Planning Board. Rohtak is the sixth most populous city in Haryana as per the 2011 census with a population of 374,292. Rohtak is identified with the older form Rauhītaka, which occurs in the 12th-century Rājataraṅgiṇī as the name of a town and district in northern India. The name also appears in the "Praśasti of Lākhā Maṇḍal at Madha". Clay mounds of coins discovered at Khokhrakot have thrown light on the process of casting coins in ancient India. The coin moulds of the later Yaudheyas of the 3rd or 4th century AD have been discovered in large number here, along with several clay seals of the same and subsequent dates. A Gupta terracotta plaque and a head of later date have also been discovered. Vipakasutra mentions popularity of Jain deity Parshvanatha and his protector Dharanendra in Rohtak around ninth century AD. A seventh century AD statue of Parshvanatha, twenty-third Jain tirthankara, was found in the Asthal Bohar village. The town continued to flourish till the 10th century AD, as coins of King Samanta Deva of the Hindu Shahi have been found here. The town was conquered by the Ghaznavids under Mahmud of Ghazni between 1020-1030. Rohtak is listed in the Ain-i-Akbari as a Mughal pargana under Delhi sarkar, producing a revenue of 8,599,270 dams for the imperial treasury and supplying a force of 2000 infantry and 100 cavalry. The existence of a brick fort was also noted. It is also mentioned in Vipakasutra, one of twelve ancient texts of Svetambara Jainism, written around ninth century AD, as a kingdom of kings Vesamanadatta and Pusyanandi. Later, Chahamanas ruled in the city region.