**Bathinda** is a city and municipal corporation in Punjab, India. The city is the administrative headquarters of Bathinda District. It is located in northwestern India in the Malwa Region, 227 km (141 mi) west of the capital city of Chandigarh and is the fifth largest city of Punjab.

Bathinda is home to the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Technical University, Central University of Punjab and AIIMS Bathinda. The city is also home to two modern thermal power plants, Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant and Guru Hargobind Thermal Plant at Lehra Mohabbat. Also located in the city is a fertilizer plant, two cement plants (Ambuja Cements and UltraTech Cement Limited), a large army cantonment, an air force station, a zoo, and a historic Qila Mubarak fort.

History
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a iconical Qila Mubarak which was built by King Kanishka in 2nd CE century and is the location where the first Empress of India Razia Sultana was held captiveBhatinda was changed to Bathinda to conform to the phonetical expression as locally pronounced. According to Henry George Raverty, Bathinda was known as *Tabar-i-Hind* (Labb-ut-Twarikh) or *Tabarhindh*, which roughly translates as ‘Gateway to India’. The earliest mention of Tabar-i-Hind occurs in the *Jami-Ul-Hakayat* written about 607 Hijri or 1211 AD.

  

In 1004, Mahmud of Ghazni besieged and captured the local fort, which was located on the route from the northwest into the rich Ganges valley.
It was ruled by 
In 1190, Muhammad of Ghor  attacked and occupied the fort of Bathinda. Prithviraj Chauhan, the ruler of this region, managed to recover possession of the fort thirteen months later in 1191 after the First Battle of Tarain. However, Prithviraj Chauhan was killed in the Second Battle of Tarain and the fort of Bathinda once again came under the control of Muhammad Ghori.

In 14th century present region of bathinda was ruled by Bhati and Bhanot rulers of that time.

1488, Bathinda was conquered by Rao Bika, son of Jodha of Mandore (founder of Jodhpur) and became part of Bikaner princely state.

Bathinda was an important fort in the area from Delhi to Lahore during the time of the Delhi Sultanate.

In 1634, a battle named Battle of Lahira (at Lahira in Bathinda) was fought between Guru Hargobind and Mughals.

The town had become an important trade and commercial centre under Mughal rule and the Mughal Emperors such as Akbar and Aurangzeb undertook many projects to enhance the fort of Bathinda.

In circa 1754, the town was conquered by Maharaja Ala Singh, the Maharaja of Patiala and since then it followed the history of erstwhile princely state of Patiala. With the dawn of independence and merger of Patiala and East Punjab States into a division called Patiala and East Punjab States Union (PEPSU), Bathinda became a full-fledged district with headquarters at Bathinda city.

Demographics
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See also: List of cities in Punjab and Chandigarh
### Population

As per provisional reports of Census India, population of Bathinda city in 2011 is 285,813; male and female are 151,782 and 134,031 respectively. The sex ratio of Bathinda city is 868 females per 1000 males. The number of literate people in Bathinda city are 211,318 of which 118,888 are males while 92,430 are females, average literacy rate is 82.84 percent of which male and female literacy is 87.86 and 77.16 percent respectively. Total children (ages 0 to 6) in Bathinda city are 30,713: 16,472 boys and 14,241 girls. Child sex ratio of girls is 865 per 1000 boys.

### Religion

Hinduism is the majority religion in Bathinda city with 62.61% people following the faith. Sikhism is the second most popular religion in the city which is followed by 35.04% of the people. Other religions include Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and Jainism. Sikhs count for 70.89% of the population in Bathinda District on a whole in spite of not being a majority in the city.