Sonipat

As the legend goes, Sonipat was earlier known as Sonprastha, which later on became Swarnprastha, meaning the "Golden City": derived from two Sanskrit words, Swarn (Gold) and Prastha (Place). Over a period of time, the classical name Swarnprasth's pronunciation degraded into Swarnpath, and then to its current form, Sonipat. The earliest reference of this 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), Indraprastha, and Tilprastha (Tilpat). It is believed that it was founded as Swarnaprastha by the five Pandava brothers during the times of Mahabharata. Another legend ascribed it to Raja Soni, the thirteenth descendent of Arjuna, one of the Pandava brothers.