According to the local legends, the Rohtas hill was named after the Rohitāśva, the son of a legendary king Harishchandra.

[1] The oldest record at Rohtas is a short inscription of "Mahasamanta Shashanka-dava", whom John Faithfull Fleet identified with the Gauda king Shashanka.

The Chandra and Tunga dynasties, which ruled in Bengal and Odisha regions respectively, traced their origin to a place called Rohitagiri, which may possibly be modern Rohtas.

[5] F. Kielhorn identified Shri Pratapa (Śrī-Pratāpa) as a member of the Khayaravala dynasty, whose inscriptions have been found at other locations in the Rohtas district.

[6][3] In 1539 CE, the Fort of Rohtas passed out of the hands of the Hindu kings into those of Sher Shah Suri.

Sher Shah Suri had just lost the Fort at Chunar in a fight with the Mughal emperor Humayun and was desperate to gain a foothold for himself.

Sher Shah requested the ruler of Rohtas that he wanted to leave his women, children and treasure in the safety of the fort, while he was away fighting in Bengal.

But the later ones contained fierce Afghan soldiers, who captured Rohtas and forced the Hindu king to flee.

Haibat Khan, a general of Sher Shah Suri built the Jami Masjid in 1543 AD, which lies to the west of the fort.

As the Governor of Bengal and Bihar, he made Rohtas his headquarters in view of its inaccessibility and other natural defenses.

He built a splendid palace 'Mahal Sarai' for himself, renovated the rest of the fort, cleared up the ponds and made gardens in Persian style.

In 1763 AD, in the Battle of Udhwa Nala, the Nawab of Bihar and Bengal, Mir Kasim, lost to the British and fled with his family to Rohtas.

From the fourth floor one can get a bird's eye view of the surrounding area, including Rohtasan Temple in the east, located about four kms away.

The residential quarters of Raja Man Singh were on the first floor, which was connected to the ladies' rooms via a gateway in the east.

Outside the palace grounds are the buildings of Jamia Masjid, Habsh Khan's Mausoleum and the Makbara of Shufi Sultan.

This style had not been used in Bengal and Bihar earlier but its emergence at Rohtas was not surprising as more than half the fort's guardians came from Rajputana.

Locals have a story to tell about this place that this spot is the mouth of a cave, where a Muslim fakir (mendicant) is buried.