Sirsa district's former name used to be Sairishaka. Sirsa is supposed to be the oldest place of north India. In 1966, the entire area of the district was included in the new state of Haryana. It forms the extreme west corner of Haryana. Sirsa is located between 29.14-30.0 North latitude and 74.29-75.18 East longitudes.
As per the census of 2001, the total population of Sirsa is 11, 16, 649. Among which the total male population numbers to 5, 93, 245 whereas the total female population numbers to 5, 23, 404. The population density is 261.
The agricultural facilities in Sirsa is very up-to date. Paddy, bajra, wheat, oil seeds, barley are the important crops that are cultivated in Sirsa. The district of Sirsa falls under the northern cotton belt. But the production of this important cash crop has fallen due to various reasons. Other than agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries and forestry are also practiced. Among the industrial set up, it mainly depends on agro-products.
In Sirsa, the literacy percentage is 60.55. There are different educational facilities offered by the district. There are a number of B.Ed. colleges, Engineering colleges as well as I.T.I in Sirsa. The other mentionable institutions in Sirsa are
District Red Cross Society
District Child Welfare Council
Hearing and Speech Handicapped Centre
The places of tourist interest in Sirsa are
Surkhab
Shikra
Kala Teetar
Dera Sacha Sauda
Radha Swami Satsang Ghar
Ram Dev Mandir
Jama Masjid
A tour to Sirsa can be very interesting as it bears its lineage to the different legends and epic of India.
In Mahabharata, Sairishaka is described as being taken by Nakula in his conquest of the western quarter. It must have been a flourishing city in the 5th century B.C. as it has been mentioned by Panini. There are a number of legends about the origin of the name of the town. As mentioned earlier, its ancient name was Sairishaka and from that it seems to have been corrupted to Sirsa. According to local tradition, an unknown king named Saras founded the town in 7th century A.D. and built a fort. The material remains of an ancient fort can still be seen in the South-East of the present town. It is about 5 kilometers in circuit. According to another tradition, the name has its origin from the sacred river Sarasvati which once flowed near it. During medieval period, the town was known as Sarsuti. It has been mentioned as Sarsuti by a number of medieval historians. The derivation of name Sirsa, is also attributed to the abundance of siris trees[Albizia lebbock (Benth)] in the neighborhood of Sirsa which seems quite plausible for it finds some corroboration also in Panini and his commentator. In ancient period, Sirsa was also known as Sirsapattan.
Sirsa seems to be in the administrative division of Hisar Feroza during Firuz Shah's reign. In the time of Akbar, Sirsa was one of the dasturs of Hisar Feroza Sarkar and much of its area lying in the present Sirsa district was covered by Mahals of Fatehabad, Bhattu, Bhangiwal (Darba), Sirsa, Bhatner (or Hanumangarh, Rajasthan) and Paniyana (Rajasthan). With the decline of the Mughal Empire, the track comprising Sirsa district came under the control of Marathas. The whole of Delhi Territory of which the tract formed part was ceded by the Marathas to the British in 1810. Sirsa was part of the outlying district of Delhi territory under the charge of an Assistant to the Resident. In 1819, the Delhi territory was divided into three districts - the Central which included Delhi, The Southern including Rewari, and the North-Western including Panipat, Hansi, Hisar, Sirsa and Rohta. In 1820, the latter was again sub-divided into Northern and Western and Sirsa alongwith Hansi, Hisar and Bhiwani formed Western district (Haryana district and later known Hisar district).
In 1837, Sirsa and Rania parganas were taken out of Haryana district and alongwith Guda and Malaut parganas were formed into a separate district called Bhattiana. The pargana of Darba from Hisar district and the small pargana of Rori confiscated from erstwhile princely state of Nabha were transferred to Bhattiana in 1838 and 1847 respectively. In 1844, Wattu pargana running upto Satluj was added in the Bhattiana district. The whole of the Delhi territory alongwith district of Bhattiana and Hisar was transferred to Punjab in 1858 and the dustrict of Bhattiana was renamed as Sirsa.
In 1861, 42 villages of Tibi tract of Rania pargana were transferred to the then state of Bikaner. The Sirsa district which comprised three tahsils of Sirsa, Dabwali and Fazilka was abolished in 1884 and Sirsa tahsil (consisting of 199 Villages) and 126 villages of Dabwali tahsil formed one tahsil and the same was merged in the Hisar district and the rest of the portion was transferred to the Firozpur district (Punjab). There was no change till the Independence of the country except that a village was transferred from Sirsa tahsil to the then state of Bikaner in 1906.
The entire area of the district was included in the new state of Haryana on November 1, 1966. In 1968, Sirsa tahsil was bifurcated into Sirsa and Dabwali tahsils. In 1974, three villages of Dabwali tahsil were transferred to Sirsa tahsil. On September 1, 1975, Sirsa and Dabwali tahsils were constituted into a separate Sirsa district with headquarters at Sirsa.