Ambala

Ambala, in northern Haryana, is a historic “twin city” consisting of Ambala City and Ambala Cantonment. Tradition links its name either to Amba Rajput, who is said to have founded it in the 14th century, or to the goddess Bhawani Amba, whose temple still stands in the city. Another popular view is that Ambala comes from “Amba-wala” or mango village, recalling old mango groves in the area. Archaeological finds of Indo-Parthian and Huna coins show that the region was important in the post-Mauryan era. Later it formed part of the Mughal Sirhind sarkar. In the early 18th century, Banda Singh Bahadur and later the Sikh misls challenged Mughal control; by the mid-1700s, Sikh chiefs dominated the area. The Ambala Cantonment was founded by the British in 1843, after they abandoned the malaria-prone Karnal cantonment. It became a key military base and later an important air force station. Ambala district itself was created in 1847 under British rule. After Independence, Ambala remained in Punjab until the formation of Haryana in 1966, when it became one of the state’s major urban centres, strategically located between Delhi, Chandigarh and the Punjab plains.