Delhi has a rich and glorious history full of construction
a city and its devastation to construct a new one. Including
the present capital, Delhi has been made the capital no less
than eight times. As a result, the city is full of some intact
and beautiful monuments and other ruins and remnants of the
past seven cities along with modern boundaries and structures
of the modern city.
The history of Delhi can be traced back to the Indus Valley
Civilization when Delhi was also the part of the settlement
at some point of time during the long period of the Indus
Valley Civilization. Delhi, for the first time became the
capital city during the period of the great epic, Mahabharata
when the Pandavas established their capital Indraprastha at
Delhi in c. 1450 BC. Archaeological evidences have corroborated
this fact after the excavation carried out at the Old Fort
area.
According to history, the first city of Delhi was the area
around the ruins of Qila-I-Rai Pithora. The Tomars established
their capital in Delhi under the sovereignty of Anangpal I
in 731 AD and called it Lal Kot. Lal Kot was reconstructed
during the reign of Anangpal II in the 11th century AD. When
Prithviraj Chauhan fortified the existing city by adding ramparts
and a moat, he named it as Qila-I-Rai Pithora.
The second city of Delhi came up during the Khalji Dynasty
under the rule of Ala-ud-Din Khalji in 1311 AD. The city does
not exist today and only the ruins of the magnificent fort
and palace have remained as a part of the history and can
be seen in the Hauz Khas and Siri Fort area. Tughlaqabad was
the third city of Delhi built during the Tughlaq Dynasty under
the patronage of Ghiyas-ud-Din Tughlaq. The impregnable fort,
beautiful palaces, mosques and the Tomb of Ghiyas-ud-Din Tughlaq
exist even today in the present Tughlaqabad area. Feroz Shah
Tughlaq, nephew of Mohamed-bin-Tughlaq, built the fourth city
of Delhi in 1351 AD and named it Firuzabad. The remains of
this fortress is now known as Feroz Shah Kotla and can be
noticed while passing from the Ring Road towards Raj Ghat
or from ITO to Delhi Gate.
The history of growth and expansion of Delhi continues even
the Mughal Period. Humayun, son of Babur and father of Akbar,
established the fifth city of Delhi in 1533 AD. Humayun had
named his city as Dinpannah or the 'Refuge of the Faithful'
while Sher Shah Suri, the Afghan king, changed it to Shergarh
after ousting Humayun from his throne. The present Old Fort
was the citadel of the Mughal city to which Sher Shah added
Qila-I-Kuhna Masjid and Sher Mandal. Shah Jahan, the most
prolific builder of all the Mughal kings constructed the sixth
capital on the banks of River Yamuna when he shifted his capital
from Agra to Delhi in 1648 AD. Named as Shahjahanabad, this
was the most beautiful of all cities of Delhi. The Red Fort,
Chandni Chowk and Darya Ganj are the part of that city and
exits even today only partially retaining its Mughal charm.
The British also continued the tradition of constructing
new structures and buildings to add to the elaborate architectural
history of Delhi. When British decided to shift their capital
from Kolkata to Delhi in 1931 AD, they selected the region
around Raisina Hill to built their new capital. The seventh
capital, New Delhi, was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and
the prominent buildings of that period are the Rasthrapati
Bhawan, Parliament House, North Block, South Block, India
Gate and Connaught Place.
As you trace the history of Delhi, you will realize that
with the development of each new city, the boundary of the
city has been extended. Today, Delhi had grown several times
in size since its first city. The history of Delhi makes for
an interesting study tour where all the important historical
structures can be visited.
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