Sardhana

Sardhana is a town and a municipal board in Meerut district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is located 85km northeast of New Delhi, and 13 mi from Meerut. Sardhana is famous for its cloth industry and Church.EtymologyThe name is derived from Saradhana, a branch of Gurjars.HistoryBeing close to Hastinapur, which is also in Meerut district, the capital of Kauravas of Mahabharata, Sardhana is also known for the ancient Mahadev Temple that is believed to be dating from the Mahabharata period. It was here that the Pandavas prayed before leaving for the Lakshagrah, the notorious palace made of lac by Duryodhana, at the confluence of the Hindon and Krishna rivers (Kali River, Kali Nadi). This palace was located at Varnavrat, the present Barnava, where the prince resided with their mother Kunti.In the 19th century, Sardhana was the capital of the Begum Samru, born as Farzana Zebunisa in 1751, and considered to be the only Catholic ruler in India. She married in her early teens, a mercenary soldier Walter Reinhardt Sombre of Luxembourg, who was operating in India. Samru is but a mispronunciation of his surname Sombre. On his death in 1778 she succeeded to the command of his mercenary troops, and subsequently converted to Catholicism in 1781, under the name Johanna.