Sirhind-Fategarh

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?Sirhind-Fatehgarh Punjab • India
Coordinates: (find coordinates)
Time zone	IST (UTC+5:30)
District(s)	Fatehgarh Sahib
Population	50,788 (2001)

Sirhind-Fatehgarh is a city and a municipal council in Fatehgarh Sahib district in the Indian state of Punjab. It is often simply called Sirhind.

[edit] Demographics

As of 2001 India census,^[1] Sirhind-Fategarh had a population of 50,788. Males constitute 54% of the population and females 46%. Sirhind-Fatehgarh has an average literacy rate of 71%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 74%, and female literacy is 67%. In Sirhind-Fatehgarh, 12% of the population is under 6 years of age.

[edit] History

Sirhind has been known as a small township from the beginning of the Christian era. It became prominent in Mughal times, controlling the Lahore-Delhi Highway. Many European travellers describe its splendours, and it also developed into a center of cultural activity^[2]. Sirhind was known for the dozens of saints, scholars, poets, historians, calligraphers and scribes who lived there. A large number of buildings survive from this period, including the fort named 'Aam Khas Bhag'; it is said that in its heyday, the city had 360 mosques, gardens, tombs, caravansarais and wells.

Beginning with the first decade of the eighteenth century, with the Mughal hegemony on the wane, Sirhind was plundered repeatedly by bands of Sikhs, Marhattas and Afghans, and was completely destroyed in 1764 in a final attack by the Sikhs.