Rupnagar district is one of twenty-two districts in the state of

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi Language, Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also Romanization, romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the I ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. The city of

Rupnagar Rupnagar (; formerly known as Ropar is a city and a municipal council in Rupnagar district in the Indian state of Punjab. Rupnagar is a newly created fifth Divisional Headquarters of Punjab comprising Rupnagar, Mohali, and its adjoining di ...

is said to have been founded by a Raja called Rokeshar, who ruled during the 11th century and named it after his son Rup Sen. It is also the site of an ancient town of the

Indus Valley civilization The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form 2600 BCE to 1900& ...

. The major cities in Rupnagar District are

Morinda ''Morinda'' is a genus of flowering plants in the madder family, Rubiaceae. The generic name is derived from the Latin words ''morus'' "mulberry", from the appearance of the fruits, and ''indica'', meaning "of India". Description Distributed i ...

, Nangal and

Anandpur Sahib Anandpur Sahib, sometimes referred to simply as Anandpur (lit. "city of bliss"), is a city in Rupnagar district (Ropar), on the edge of Shivalik Hills, in the Indian state of Punjab. Located near the Sutlej River, the city is one of the most ...

. Morinda is also known as Baghwāla "

he City He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

of Gardens." Morinda is located on the

Chandigarh Chandigarh () is a planned city in India. Chandigarh is bordered by the state of Punjab to the west and the south, and by the state of Haryana to the east. It constitutes the bulk of the Chandigarh Capital Region or Greater Chandigarh, which al ...

Ludhiana Ludhiana ( ) is the most populous and the largest city in the Indian state of Punjab. The city has an estimated population of 1,618,879 2011 census and distributed over , making Ludhiana the most densely populated urban centre in the state. I ...

Highway. The

Bhakra Dam Bhakra Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Sutlej River in Bhakra Village near Bilaspur in Bilaspur district, Himachal Pradesh in northern India. The dam forms the Gobind Sagar reservoir. The dam, located at a gorge near the (now submerge ...

in Nangal lies on the boundary with the neighboring state of

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several pea ...

. Dadhi is one of the most important villages of the district, particularly because of Gurudwara Sri Hargobindsar Sahib.

Ropar

Ropar is a 21-meter-high ancient mound overlaying the

Shiwalik The Sivalik Hills, also known as the Shivalik Hills and Churia Hills, are a mountain range of the outer Himalayas that stretches over about from the Indus River eastwards close to the Brahmaputra River, spanning the northern parts of the Indian ...

(also spelled as Sivalik or Shivalik) deposition on the left bank of the river

Sutlej The Sutlej or Satluj River () is the longest of the five rivers that flow through the historic crossroads region of Punjab in northern India and Pakistan. The Sutlej River is also known as ''Satadru''. It is the easternmost tributary of the In ...

where it merges into the plains. It has yielded a sequence of six cultural periods or phases with some breaks from the Harappan times to the present day. The excavations were carried out by Dr. Y.D. Sharma of

Archaeological Survey of India The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is an Indian government agency that is responsible for archaeological research and the conservation and preservation of cultural historical monuments in the country. It was founded in 1861 by Alexand ...

. The migration of the Harappans to Ropar has been postulated through the lost

Saraswati River The Sarasvati River () is a deified river first mentioned in the Rigveda and later in Vedic and post-Vedic texts. It played an important role in the Vedic religion, appearing in all but the fourth book of the Rigveda. As a physical river, ...

to the Sutlej as both rivers once belonged to one system.

Period I

At Ropar excavation, the lowest levels yielded the Harappan traits in Period 1, which falls in the proto-historic period. A major find was a steatite seal in the Indus script used for the authentication of trading goods, impression of the seal on a

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terra ...

lump of burnt

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay pa ...

, chert blades,

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pink ...

implements, terracotta

beads A bead is a small, decorative object that is formed in a variety of shapes and sizes of a material such as stone, bone, shell, glass, plastic, wood, or pearl and with a small hole for threading or stringing. Beads range in size from under ...

, and

bangle Bangles are traditionally rigid bracelets which are usually made of metal, wood, glass or plastic. These ornament are worn mostly by women in the Indian subcontinent, Southeastern Asia, Arabian Peninsula, and Africa. It is common to see a brid ...

s and typically standardized pottery of

. They flourished in all the Harappan cities and townships. The dead were buried with head generally to the north and with funerary vessels as unearthed in cemetery R-37 at Harappa (Sind, Pakistan). What led the Harappans to desert the site is not known.

Period II

Period II belongs to Painted grey ware people who followed the Harappans. Typical pottery of this period consisted of fine grey ware painted black, terracotta bangles, semi-precious stones, glass, bone arrowheads, ivory kohl sticks, and copper implements. This period is identified as the period belonging to the Great War Epic -

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the '' Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the K ...

. A new settlement sprang up here by about 600 BC - chronologically Period III at Rupar. Grey pottery of Period II still continued. This period belongs to circa 600 BC to 200 BC. It yielded the earlier coins (punch-marked and uninscribed cast coins), copper, and implements. An important find was an ivory seal inscribed in

Mauryan The Maurya Empire, or the Mauryan Empire, was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in the Indian subcontinent based in Magadha, having been founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 322 BCE, and existing in loose-knit fashion until 1 ...

Brahmi script Brahmi (; ; ISO: ''Brāhmī'') is a writing system of ancient South Asia. "Until the late nineteenth century, the script of the Aśokan (non-Kharosthi) inscriptions and its immediate derivatives was referred to by various names such as 'lath' ...

(4th and 3rd century BC) Minutely carved and polished stone discs with a figure and motif associated with the cult of the Mother goddess of fertility have also been unearthed in the excavations from

Taxila Taxila or Takshashila (; sa, तक्षशिला; pi, ; , ; , ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan. Located in the Taxila Tehsil of Rawalpindi District, it lies approximately northwest of the Islamabad–Rawalpindi metropolitan area a ...

(now in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

Patna Patna ( ), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...

in the state of

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...

and other Mauryan sites. Houses of mud and kiln burnt bricks were by no means rare. A 3.6-meter wide burnt brick wall traced to a length of about 75 m probably endorsed a tank that collected water through inlets. The upper levels have soak wells lined with terracotta rings of

Shunga is a type of Japanese erotic art typically executed as a kind of ukiyo-e, often in woodblock print format. While rare, there are also extant erotic painted handscrolls which predate ukiyo-e. Translated literally, the Japanese word ''shunga' ...

and

Kushana The Kushan Empire ( grc, Βασιλεία Κοσσανῶν; xbc, Κυϸανο, ; sa, कुषाण वंश; Brahmi: , '; BHS: ; xpr, 𐭊𐭅𐭔𐭍 𐭇𐭔𐭕𐭓, ; zh, 貴霜 ) was a syncretic empire, formed by the Yuezhi, ...

periods.

Period III To V

From Period III to V there are fairly rich dwelling complexes with houses of stone and mud bricks. The full plans of the houses could not be exposed owing to the vertical nature of excavations carried out.

Period VI

In the next phase, Period VI revealed the evidence of the

Shungas The Shunga Empire (IAST: ') was an ancient Indian dynasty from Magadha that controlled areas of the most of the northern Indian subcontinent from around 185 to 73 BCE. The dynasty was established by Pushyamitra, after taking the throne of the M ...

Kushanas The Kushan Empire ( grc, Βασιλεία Κοσσανῶν; xbc, Κυϸανο, ; sa, कुषाण वंश; Brahmi: , '; BHS: ; xpr, 𐭊𐭅𐭔𐭍 𐭇𐭔𐭕𐭓, ; zh, 貴霜 ) was a syncretic empire, formed by the Yuezhi, i ...

, and

Guptas The Gupta Empire was an ancient Indian empire which existed from the early 4th century CE to late 6th century CE. At its zenith, from approximately 319 to 467 CE, it covered much of the Indian subcontinent. This period is considered as the Gold ...

and their successors. Excavations also revealed successive building levels of various dynasties. In the upper levels, a hoard of copper coins of Kushan and Gupta rules were found. This includes a gold coin issued by Chandragupta-Kumerdevi of the

Gupta dynasty The Gupta Empire was an ancient Indian empire which existed from the early 4th century CE to late 6th century CE. At its zenith, from approximately 319 to 467 CE, it covered much of the Indian subcontinent. This period is considered as the Gold ...

, which is also known as the golden age in ancient Indian history. A large number of terracotta figurines of Shunga, Kushana, and Gupta periods were also discovered. Amongst them were a Yakshi figure with cherubic expression and a beautiful seated figure of a lady playing on the lyre reminiscent of Samudragupta’s figure in a similar position on the famous gold coins of the Gupta dynasty. A set of three

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

utensils for ritualistic purposes with Greek influence depicts the fine craftsmanship of the Gupta dynasty in its chased decoration. The pottery of this period in the upper levels is for the most part redware and is frequently decorated with incised motifs. After a short break, there is evidence of a fresh occupation identified as Period V commencing around the early 6th century and continuing for three or four centuries. The coins of Toramana (circa AD 500) and Mihirakula (circa 510-40) have been recovered from these levels. The spacious brick building of the fifth period was constricted neatly and evidence showed a good measure of prosperity during this period. Probably after desertion, a new town sprang up here around 13th century AD on the same site named Period VI and it continues to flourish to the present day. An archaeological site

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...

has been set up to house some of the antiquities of Rupar along with the photographs displaying excavation material.

Location

Rupnagar district, included in the

Patiala Patiala () is a city in southeastern Punjab, northwestern India. It is the fourth largest city in the state and is the administrative capital of Patiala district. Patiala is located around the ''Qila Mubarak'' (the 'Fortunate Castle') construct ...

Division of

falls between north latitude 30°-32' and 31°-24' and east longitude 76°-18' and 76°-55'.

(formerly known as Ropar) town, the district headquarters is 42 km from

, the state capital. The district adjoins

Shahid Bhagat Singh Nagar Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district is one of twenty-three districts of state of Punjab, India. It is located in Doaba region. It consists of three subdivisions, Nawanshahr, Banga, and Balachaur. There are three legislative seats in the distric ...

(formerly known as Nawanshahar),

Mohali Mohali, officially known as Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar, is a planned city in the Mohali district in Punjab, India, which is an administrative and a commercial hub lying south-west of Chandigarh. It is the headquarters of the Mohali district. ...

and

Fatehgarh Sahib Fatehgarh Sahib is a city and a sacred pilgrimage site of Sikhism in the north west Indian state of Punjab. It is the headquarters of Fatehgarh Sahib district, located about north of Sirhind. Fatehgarh Sahib is named after Fateh Singh, the 7-y ...

Districts of Punjab. The district comprises 4 Tehsils,

Chamkaur Sahib Chamkaur Sahib is a Sub Divisional town in the district of Rupnagar in the Indian State of Punjab. It is famous for the First Battle of Chamkaur (1702) and the Second Battle of Chamkaur (1704) fought between the Mughals and Guru Gobind Singh ...

and Nangal and includes 617 villages and 7 towns namely Rupnagar, Chamkaur Sahib, Anandpur Sahib,

, Kiratpur Sahib and Nangal, Bela. All the towns except Chamkaur sahib fall on the railway line. The Satluj river passes close (2 to 5 km) to the towns of Nangal, Rupnagar, Bela and Anandpur Sahib. ropar fall in puadhregion except it's nurpur bedi sub-tehsil which is geographically in

doaba Doaba also known as Bist Doab, is the region of Punjab, India that lies between the Beas River and the Sutlej River. People of this region are given the demonym "Doabia". The dialect of Punjabi spoken in Doaba is called "Doabi". Th ...

region of Punjab

Towns and villages

Rupnagar district, included in the Rupnagar Division of Punjab falls between north

latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north ...

30°-32' and 31°-24' and east

longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east– west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek let ...

76°-18' and 76°-55'. Rupnagar (formerly known as ''Ropar'') town, the district headquarters is 42 km from

, the state capital. The district adjoins

Nawanshahar Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district is one of twenty-three districts of state of Punjab, India. It is located in Doaba region. It consists of three subdivisions, Nawanshahr, Banga, and Balachaur. There are three legislative seats in the distr ...

, and

Districts of Punjab. The district comprises four

Tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its adminis ...

and Nangal and includes 617

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

s and 6

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an o ...

s: Rupnagar, Chamkaur Sahib, Anandpur Sahib,

, Kiratpur Sahib and Nangal. All the towns except Chamkaur Sahib have

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a p ...

connections. The Satluj river passes close to the towns of Nangal, Rupnagar, and Anandpur Sahib. Shekhian Mohalla is a famous old central part of Ropar city in the hold of migrated Hindu and Sikh population. Before partition inhibited by Muslim Kakkay Sheikhs of Ropar (also known Kakkay Abbasi). Now, this is a great trade hub of Ropar city. Ghanauli is also Another Famous village of Ropar: Because of Freedom fighter Harnam Singh Kavishar, this village comes to the top list in British Raj.

Climate

The climate of Rupnagar District is characterized by its general dryness (except in the south-west

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...

season), hot summer, and bracingly cold winter. The year may be divided into four seasons. The period from about the middle of November to February is the cold season. This is followed by the summer season from March to about the end of June. The south-west monsoon season commences late in June and continues up to about the middle of September. The period from mid-September to the middle of November constitute the post-monsoon or transition season. The temperature ranges from a minimum of 4 °C in winter to 45 °C in summer. May and June are generally hottest months and December and January are the coldest months. The relative humidity is high, averaging about 70 percent during monsoon. The average annual rainfall in the district is 775.6 mm. About 78 percent of the annual rainfall is received during the period from June to September. The soils of the District vary in texture generally from loam to silty clay loam except along the

Sutlej River The Sutlej or Satluj River () is the longest of the five rivers that flow through the historic crossroads region of Punjab in northern India and Pakistan. The Sutlej River is also known as ''Satadru''. It is the easternmost tributary of the ...

and where some sandy patches may be found.

and Kharar blocks have sodic soils. The soils of Anandpur Sahib and Rupnagar blocks are undulating.

Politics

Tehsils in Rupnagar district

* Nangal *

Cities and towns

* Kiratpur Sahib *

* Nangal *

* Kamalpur *

Ghanauli Ghanauli Town is situated near Rupnagar in Rupnagar district in the state of Punjab in India. Location Ghanauli lies on the bank of river Sutlej near Rupnagar. The village is located on National Highway 205 (Earlier NH 21) section between Rup ...

* Dadhi

Nurpur bedi Nurpur may refer to: * Nurpur, Fenchuganj, a village in Sylhet, Bangladesh * Nurpur, Comilla, village in Comilla Bangladesh * Nurpur, Himachal Pradesh, a city and municipal council in the state of Himachal Pradesh, India * Nurpur, Jalandhar, a v ...

* Bharatgarh * Kartarpur * Bara, Punjab - A Famous Archelogical Site Village In Rupnagar District

Demographics

According to the 2011 census Rupnagar district has a

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction usi ...

of 684,627, roughly equal to the nation of

Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea ( es, Guinea Ecuatorial; french: Guinée équatoriale; pt, Guiné Equatorial), officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea ( es, link=no, República de Guinea Ecuatorial, french: link=no, République de Guinée équatoria ...

or the US state of

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, ...

. This gives it a ranking of 507th in India (out of a total of 640). The district has a population density of . Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 8.67%. Rupnagar has a

sex ratio The sex ratio (or gender ratio) is usually defined as the ratio of males to females in a population. As explained by Fisher's principle, for evolutionary reasons this is typically about 1:1 in species which reproduce sexually. Many species dev ...

of 913

females Female (symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females ...

for every 1000 males, and a

literacy rate Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...

of 83.3%. Scheduled Castes made up 26.42% of the population.

Notable people

Kanshi Ram Kanshi Ram (15 March 1934 – 9 October 2006), also known as Bahujan Nayak or Manyavar or Saheb, was an Indian politician and social reformer who worked for the upliftment and political mobilisation of the Bahujans, the backward or lower cast ...

founder of

Bahujan Samaj Party The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is a national level political party in India that was formed to represent Bahujans (literally means "community in majority"), referring to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes (OBC), al ...

References

External links

*
Govt. Website on Rupnagar

Rupnagar BSNL telephone directory search

Archaeological Museum in Rupnagar (Archaeological Survey of India)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rupnagar District Districts of Punjab, India