Hanumangarh Tour

Distance : 232km north of Bikaner

Glorious Past
Situated in the northern tip of Rajasthan on the banks of the river Ghaggar, Hanumangarh is a flourishing town and is the headquarters of the district of the same name. While it cannot be said for certain who built the fort, some historians credit its construction to Abhay Rao Bhatti of whom very little is known. Historical evidence also suggests that the fort was first inhabited sometime in the 12th century. The old name of the place was Bhatner. The Bhatner fort was captured in the late 13th century by Jalaluddin, the Sultan of Delhi. After Jalaluddin was murdered by his nephew the fort passed into the hands of the Bhatti Rajputs and they ruled for a very long period, apart from a brief interval after which they went back to ruling. The short spell in which they were ousted was when the Turk Timur the Lame invaded India and captured Bhatner along with many other places as well. But Timur had only come only to loot and plunder, and once that was done he left for good. Subsequently Bhatner reverted back to the control of the Bhattis.

The Imperious Rajputs
The most prominent of the Bhatti rulers who reigned Bhatner over the next two centuries was the Bhatti chieftain Bairisal, who was king for 27 years. It was in 1527 that the fourth ruler of Bikaner Maharaja Jait Singh annexed the fort and Bhatner became part of the Bikaner empire. However, at the turn of the 16th century, the Mughal emperor Akbar's father-in-law Nasir Khan came to stay at Bikaner and made a pass at one of the women. The Bikaneris, not one to take such an insult lightly gave him a sound thrashing, which riled the emperor enough to instigate him to annex Bhatner. After passing hands many times between the Mughals and kingdom of Bikaner, Maharaja Surat Singh of Bikaner captured Bhatner in 1805, after defeating Zabta Khan. As it was a Tuesday (a day sacred to Lord Hanuman) the name was changed from Bhatner to Hanumangarh.