Thanesar (Hindi: ) is an old and historic town on the banks of the Sarsawati Ghaggar river in the state of Haryana in northern India. It is located in Kurukshetra District, approximately 160km northwest of Delhi. Prabhakaravardhana, father of Harshavardhana, was the ruler of Thanesar and the first king of the Vardhana dynasty with his capital at Sthanishvara (present day Thanesar). The name Thanesar is derived from its name in Sanskrit, Sthanishvara which means Place/Abode of the Lord. (Sthana-Place/region, Ishvara-Lord) Thanesar was an obscure village until the 1950s. After the partition of India, a large refugee camp was set up here, which became the nucleus of a bustling commercial city. It grew so much that in 23rd January, 1973, a new district named Kurukshetra district was created, of which Thanesar was the main town. Now Thanesar is a Municipal Council. People now tend, erroneously, to refer to Thanesar town as "Kurukshetra". The new district was named Kurukshetra in...
