Kurukshetra district is one of the 22 districts of Haryana state in northern India. The town of Kurukshetra, a sacred place for the Hindus, is the administrative headquarters of this district. The district occupies an area of 1530.00 km². The district has a population of 964,655 (2011 census). This district is part of Ambala division. Kurukshetra is also the land of Srimad Bhagawad Gita. Jyotisar is the place in Kurukshetra where Krishna is believed to deliver the sermon of Gita to Arjuna in the Mahabharata. Origin of name The district derived its name from the ancient region of Kurukshetra, which literally means the land of the Kurus. It is believed that the Kurukshetra war described in the Puranas and the war was fought here and Shri Krishna preached the Bhagavat Gita to Arjuna on the battlefield before the war. History The district was carved out from the erstwhile Karnal district in 1973. Later some parts of this district were transferred to Kaithal and Yamuna Nagar districts at the time of their creation. Sub-Divisions The Kurukshetra district is headed by an IAS officer of the rank of Deputy Commissioner (DC) who is the chief executive officer of the district. The district is divided into 4 sub-divisions, each headed by a Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM): Shahabad, Thanesar, Ladwa and Pehowa. Revenue tehsils The district has 4 revenue tehsils, namely, Thanesar, Pehowa, Shahabad and Ladwa and 2 sub-tehsils - Babain and Ismailabad. Demographics According to the 2011 census Kurukshetra district has a population of 964,655, roughly equal to the nation of Fiji or the US state of Montana. This gives it a ranking of 452nd in India (out of a total of 640). The district has a population density of . Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 16.81%. Kurukshetra has a sex ratio of 889 females for every 1000 males, and a literacy rate of 76.7%. Scheduled Castes make up 22.30% of the population. Languages At the time of the 2011 Census of India, 65.81% of the population in the district spoke Hindi, 17.47% Punjabi and 15.22% Haryanvi as their first language. Education Kurukshetra University was established as a unitary residential university at Kurukshetra in 1956. The Regional Engineering College at Kurukshetra was established in 1963, which was later renamed as National Institute of Technology. Kurukshetra has recently got two reputed institutions in the form of National Institute of Design and