Ancient History
According to legend, Sonipat was earlier known as Sonprastha, which later on became Swarnprastha, meaning the "Golden City": derived from two Sanskrit words, "swarn" (gold) and "prastha" (place). Eventually, the pronunciation of the classical name Swarnprasth changed into Swarnpath, and then to its current form, Sonipat.
Another reference to the city comes in the epic Mahabharata, and at that time it was one of the five villages demanded by the Pandavas in lieu of the kingdom of Hastinapur. The other four villages were Panprastha (Panipat), Baghprastha (Baghpat), Tilprastha (Tilpat) and Indraprastha. Another legend ascribed it to Raja Soni, the thirteenth descendent of Arjuna, one of the Pandava brothers. Both traditions are without supporting evidence. There is no mention of Sonipat in the Mahabharata, although it had been noted much earlier by the grammarian Pāṇini in his celebrated Ashtadhyayi. The town was therefore already in existence around 600 B.C.
Read more about this topic: Sonipat
Famous quotes containing the words ancient history, ancient and/or history:
“To some extent, mythology is only the most ancient history and biography. So far from being false or fabulous in the common sense, it contains only enduring and essential truth, the I and you, the here and there, the now and then, being omitted. Either time or rare wisdom writes it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Men must speak English who can write Sanskrit; they must speak a modern language who write, perchance, an ancient and universal one.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Revolutions are the periods of history when individuals count most.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)