Rupnagarਰੂਪਨਗਰ

Ancient Ropar

Rupnagar, still widely called Ropar, is among the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the subcontinent. Excavations here uncovered a Harappan settlement, showing that this bend of the Sutlej has held a town for over four thousand years. The archaeological museum at Ropar displays the finds: seals, pottery and tools from the Indus Valley period through the Mauryan and Gupta ages.

The town later guarded the Sutlej crossing on the road to the hills, and its old quarters keep the memory of the caravans and armies that passed this way.

Anandpur Sahib and the Khalsa

The district's spiritual heart is Anandpur Sahib, founded by Guru Tegh Bahadur and raised by Guru Gobind Singh into a fortified city of the Sikh faith. Here, on Vaisakhi of 1699, the Guru founded the Khalsa, baptising the first five and giving the community its identity, its discipline and its name of Singh and Kaur.

Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib, one of the five takhts, stands where the founding took place, and the town's forts, Lohgarh, Holgarh, Fatehgarh and the others, ring the memory of the sieges the young Khalsa endured. Nearby Chamkaur Sahib marks the battle of December 1704, where the Guru's two elder sons, Ajit Singh and Jujhar Singh, fell fighting.

The district today

Modern Rupnagar district, with about 685,000 people counted in 2011 across roughly 1,440 square kilometres, runs from the Sutlej at Ropar up into the Shivalik foothills. Nangal, below the Bhakra dam's waters, is an industrial town built around the great dam project. Hola Mohalla at Anandpur Sahib draws vast crowds each spring for the Khalsa's great festival of martial display.

The district's towns are Rupnagar, Anandpur Sahib, Nangal, Chamkaur Sahib and Morinda. Village-level pages for Rupnagar district are being added to the Kosh.