According to legend, 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 another 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), Tilprastha (Tilpat) and Indraprastha. Another legend ascribed it to Raja Soni, the thirteenth descendent of Arjuna, one of the Pandava brothers. Both the traditions are without substance. There is no mention of Sonipat in the Mahabharata, although it has been noted much earlier by the great grammarian Panini in his celebrated Ashtadhyayi. The town was therefore already in existence around 600 B.C
