The district headquarters is situated in Rohtak town. Other smaller towns are Meham, Sampla, Kalanaur and Hasangarh. The total area of Rohtak is 1,745 square kilometres and its population is 9,40,036. Rohtak district is also known as the Political Capital of Haryana.
Rohtak is said to be a corruption of Rohtasgarh, a name still applied to the ruined Khokrakot sites of two cities, one lying to north of Rohtak town and the other about 4 kilometres to the east. It is believed it was named after Raja Rohtas, in whose days, the city was built. It is also claimed that the town drives its name from the Roherra tree called rohtika in Sanskrit. It is said that the town was built by clearing a forest of rohtika trees and hence its name Rohtak.
Another version connects Rohtak to Rohitaka, which has been mentioned in the Mahabharata.
It was quite possibly the Capital of Bahudhanyaka. In the Vinaya of the Mulasarvasti-vadins, Jivaka has been shown as undertaking a journey from Taxila to Bhadramkara, Udumbra, Rohitaka and Mathura in the Ganga doab. The ancient road carried the trade of the Ganga valley to Taxila, passing through Rohitaka to Sakala. The Rewari and Gajjak ohtak are famous all over India as well as at many places abroad. The ruins of the ancient town are found at Khokrakot or Rohtasgarh. Some experts opine that the town is probably as old as the Indus Valley
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Maratha Ruler, Tantia Tope during the seventeenth century A.D. The fort was named as Mahendragarh in 1861 by Narendra Singh, the then ruler of the erstwhile Princely State of Patiala, in honour of his son, Mahendra Singh. Subsequently, the town came to be known as Mahendragarh. The name of Narnaul Nizamat was changed to Mahendragarh Nizamat.