Sonepat
Sonipat is a town and a municipal council in the Sonipat district in the state of Haryana, India. It comes under the National Capital Region and is around 20 km from Delhi. The Yamuna River runs along the eastern boundary. On 22 December 1972, Sonipat was carved out of Rohtak and made a full-fledged district.Sonipat was founded as Swarnaprastha by the five Pandava brothers during the times of Mahabharata. It was one of the five prasthas or towns demanded by Yudhisthira as the price of peace from Duryodhana.EtymologyAccording to legend, Sonipat was earlier known as Sonprastha, which later on became Swarnprastha, meaning the "Golden City": derived from two Sanskrit words, "swarn" and "prastha" . Eventually, the name Swarnprastha changed into Swarnpath, and then to its current form, Sonipat/Sonepat.Ancient historyReference 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.
