Delhi - The Brick and Mortar Phoenix.
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
"Delhi is seven cities"
Some historians put that number at eleven. According to the most widely accepted version of Delhi's history it is - "A series of cities created one after the other; stretching some 3000 years back in time." But then again, some say it might even be 5000 years old.
Nobody knows for sure when Delhi began. For the record, there are archaeological excavations very near the city that have unearthed ruins 5000 years old. These ruins belong to the Indus Valley culture, one of the four centres for the origin of human civilization (the others were China, Mesopotamia and Egypt). It would nevertheless be very adventurous to say that Delhi began right up with the Indus valley. Surely the beginning of a city as grand as Delhi cannot be traced back to a cluster of huts. I regard it the safest to stick to the view that nobody knows when Delhi began.
For the uninitiated, Delhi (or more precisely New Delhi) is the Capital city of India. It is situated in the North-Central part of India, is a city of some 12-15 million people, is the shape of a 30 Km radius circle. It sits like a huge blob of black and grey at the edge of the Indo Gangetic plain, one of the flattest, most fertile and most densely populated regions in the world. On the east and North of Delhi are lush green fields of the plains, on the west is the Thar desert and on the south is the river Yamuna. Some 300 Km north of Delhi are the Himalayan mountains. There is a lot that the present day Delhi has to offer, but this entry is about the history of the city.
The earliest mention of Delhi known to me is in the Mahabharata, an ancient Indian epic. According to the epic Delhi began as a jungle inhabited by small tribes. The conquering heroes of the epic razed this jungle and killed all its inhabitants to build their capital, Indraprastha - "Abode of the King of the Gods." This was the first city of Delhi, and the violence that marked its creation was to be a recurring theme in its history. Intrestingly, the ruins of ancient Indraprastha are there in modern day Delhi and the name Indraprastha is given to one of the modern day suburbs. This story of the origin of Delhi would make the city about 3000-3500 years old. And the first war for the throne of Delhi would be the epic Mahabharata.
The next mention of Delhi is around 600 AD. Delhi was then the Capital city of a certain king Dhilu. Dhilu was a fairly unremarkable king, as were most of the others who ruled Delhi in the early part of the Indian middle ages. The only importance Dhilu has is giving Delhi its name.
Delhi started to rise in importance again in the 12th century AD. This was the time when raids by the Afghans on the North Western borders of india began. Delhi was the city that faced the brunt of these raids. It was at that time a puny kingdom in the hands of a clan of princes called the Chauhans. After a series of battles, the Chauhans finally lost Delhi in 1198 AD. The control of Delhi was passed on to Mohammed Ghauri, an Afghan raider and in 1200 AD Delhi was left as booty to Ghauri's slave.
This new slave king, Qutabuddin Aibak, created the third Delhi in a present-day suburb called as Mehrauli. Qutabuddin gave Delhi its most famous landmark - The Qutab Minar, a tall limestone mortar tower that still stands. These were strange times, extremely turbulent and yet marked by remarkable progress and intermittent periods of great prosperity. What can't be denied is that the slave kings of Delhi were a restless lot. Constant tussle for power led to a downward spiral of court intrigues, assassination, poisoning and plundering. On the other hand, because of this restlessnes, the Slave kings started to expand their empire and the pre-eminence of Delhi as the Capital city rose. This pre-eminence came at a heavy price as Delhi became a prime target for plunderers. In the absence of a strong and stable ruler to defend it, Delhi fell and the plunderers had a field day. It was razed and plundered by Timor the lame and also by Genghis Khan, perhaps two of the fiercest raiders seen by history[0]. After these plunderers, Delhi faced its worst days, those under Mohammed bin Tughlaq, ironically a strong and wily ruler . Often ridiculed as Mad Mohammed, he was an extraordinary scholar. Brilliant and a spectacular failure[1]. It was Tughlaq who ordered the evacuation of Delhi in a fit of rage. "There shall not be a single kitchen fire left burning in Delhi", the emperor thundered, and in response thousands of Funeral pyres lit up as people died like flies on the road from Delhi to the new capital 1000 miles away[2].
But Delhi's spirit lived, each time Delhi was destroyed, it regenerated right next to its older incarnate. There still stand Tughlaq's Tughlaqabad and Allauddin Khalji's Siri fort. There still remains the Hauz Khas as do numerous other products of the time under the slave dynasties. Each a new face for a horrifyingly resilient city. Not only did Delhi survive, it flourished as a center for religion and for art.
In 1526AD, Ghiasuddin Babar captured Delhi. Using just 25000 men, cavalry and artillery, he routed an army four times his army's size and put to death the last Salve king - Ibrahim Lodhi. The reason for the rout was that Babar introduced artillery to India.
With Ghiasuddin Babar came the Moguls and the Golden era for Delhi. Over the next few centuries the Moguls became perhaps the richest and the most powerful kings in the world. Delhi prospered, this time as Shahjahanabad - the red fort and its walled city. These were 200 years of great calm and progress in Delhi. The moguls had declared at the gates of Shahjahanabad that the city was a heaven on Earth. It very nearly was. Unsurpassed in arts, in trade, in religion and in riches, it boasted an undefeated army.
This prosperity lasted till the moguls lasted. And Aurangzeb was the last of the great moguls. Coming to power as he did, after leading a revolt to kill his brothers, he is widely regarded as a brutal bigoted man. Aurangzeb was nevertheless a very strange person. He is worth knowing a little more because after his death Delhi plunged inexorably towards destruction giving the impression that he was what stood between Delhi and ruin. A spartan, simple and extremely religious man, it is said that he stitched caps to pay for his living. Aurangzeb's empire was progressively weakened by his desire to expand into the south of India. He faced there the Marathas under one of India's most respected politico-military leader Shivaji. When Aurangzeb died the moguls were a mere shadow, a little before his death Aurangzeb wrote to his son that he had been duped by his advisors, that he had been told that India had all the knowledge and all the riches he would ever need. He wrote further that there was a world beyond the mogul court and that this world beyond needed to be seen and explored if the moguls were to prosper. It was a noble thought, but it came too late. Aurangzeb died and anarchy broke loose. None of the new mogul emporers had time to work outside the court, that in itself with its intrigues was a formidable problem.
Rich and weak, Delhi braced again to be ruined and plundered first by Nadir Shah and then by his General Ahmad Shah Abdali. By the Time Abdali left in 1762 AD, all the glory amassed in 200 years was destroyed. By 1856 AD the Mogul empire was dead, fallen prey to British advances in India. The once great Mogul throne that ruled India was reduced to an influence extending a stone's throw in radius. The Mogul empire was dead, it remained to be buried. That happened in 1857 AD when a revolt was organized against the British, after a few months of bloody fighting the moguls lost Delhi forever. The last emperor was exiled to Burma where he died lamenting the lack of a few yards of land in Delhi for his burial. The last mogul princes were beheaded, the headless bodies hung on one of the gates of the city, and the heads sent as presents from the British to the mogul Emporer.
The British fell on Delhi with a vengeance, killing brutally anyone associated with the revolt. Accounts of that time describe graphically mass public hangings and death by firing a cannonball through persons tied to the mouth of a cannon. The retribution ended in 1858 AD and Delhi was then placed under British sovereignty. The British kept Calcutta as their Indian capital for some time, but then in 1911AD Delhi was declared the Capital of India once more, and a new city - Lutyen's Delhi, came up. This, the most modern of the many Delhi's, was built as the administrative center of the British. It is the place where the present day Indian Government has its offices.
Lutyen's Delhi is also called as the New Delhi. Most people regarded it as the last Delhi. But the truth is that there have been many Delhi's that have been built since. In 1947, an extended south Delhi was built for the many refugees of the Indian Partition. In the 1980s and 1990s a big industrial Delhi was built in the north of the city that prospered under the economic and industrial anarchy of the 80s and the 90s. These were all ill conceived plans that failed miserably. Such 'solutions' are constantly offered for the problem of managing a population of 12-15 million in today's Delhi. The simple truth is that a nation like India never had the resources or administrative frame to handle such a monstorously large city.
Now Delhi is a huge impersonal soulless metro, a far cry from the elegant and tragic city it has been throughout its history.
Like in 1984, Delhi sometimes, and thankfully only sometimes, does bare its fangs to remind its residents of its terrible history.
=================
Footnotes
[0] Some accounts potray that the these raids would cut the population of the city down to a third of the original. It is from here that a term called as "Katl-e-aam" came in. It literally means Death to all. It was a sanction to kill at will.
[1]. Blunders from his times include the scheme for copper currency to replace gold currency. These copper coins can still be found lying in his old fort.
[2]. The new capital did not survive long, and Tughlaq moved back to Delhi, that move cost thousands of lives again
Some historians put that number at eleven. According to the most widely accepted version of Delhi's history it is - "A series of cities created one after the other; stretching some 3000 years back in time." But then again, some say it might even be 5000 years old.
Nobody knows for sure when Delhi began. For the record, there are archaeological excavations very near the city that have unearthed ruins 5000 years old. These ruins belong to the Indus Valley culture, one of the four centres for the origin of human civilization (the others were China, Mesopotamia and Egypt). It would nevertheless be very adventurous to say that Delhi began right up with the Indus valley. Surely the beginning of a city as grand as Delhi cannot be traced back to a cluster of huts. I regard it the safest to stick to the view that nobody knows when Delhi began.
For the uninitiated, Delhi (or more precisely New Delhi) is the Capital city of India. It is situated in the North-Central part of India, is a city of some 12-15 million people, is the shape of a 30 Km radius circle. It sits like a huge blob of black and grey at the edge of the Indo Gangetic plain, one of the flattest, most fertile and most densely populated regions in the world. On the east and North of Delhi are lush green fields of the plains, on the west is the Thar desert and on the south is the river Yamuna. Some 300 Km north of Delhi are the Himalayan mountains. There is a lot that the present day Delhi has to offer, but this entry is about the history of the city.
The earliest mention of Delhi known to me is in the Mahabharata, an ancient Indian epic. According to the epic Delhi began as a jungle inhabited by small tribes. The conquering heroes of the epic razed this jungle and killed all its inhabitants to build their capital, Indraprastha - "Abode of the King of the Gods." This was the first city of Delhi, and the violence that marked its creation was to be a recurring theme in its history. Intrestingly, the ruins of ancient Indraprastha are there in modern day Delhi and the name Indraprastha is given to one of the modern day suburbs. This story of the origin of Delhi would make the city about 3000-3500 years old. And the first war for the throne of Delhi would be the epic Mahabharata.
The next mention of Delhi is around 600 AD. Delhi was then the Capital city of a certain king Dhilu. Dhilu was a fairly unremarkable king, as were most of the others who ruled Delhi in the early part of the Indian middle ages. The only importance Dhilu has is giving Delhi its name.
Delhi started to rise in importance again in the 12th century AD. This was the time when raids by the Afghans on the North Western borders of india began. Delhi was the city that faced the brunt of these raids. It was at that time a puny kingdom in the hands of a clan of princes called the Chauhans. After a series of battles, the Chauhans finally lost Delhi in 1198 AD. The control of Delhi was passed on to Mohammed Ghauri, an Afghan raider and in 1200 AD Delhi was left as booty to Ghauri's slave.
This new slave king, Qutabuddin Aibak, created the third Delhi in a present-day suburb called as Mehrauli. Qutabuddin gave Delhi its most famous landmark - The Qutab Minar, a tall limestone mortar tower that still stands. These were strange times, extremely turbulent and yet marked by remarkable progress and intermittent periods of great prosperity. What can't be denied is that the slave kings of Delhi were a restless lot. Constant tussle for power led to a downward spiral of court intrigues, assassination, poisoning and plundering. On the other hand, because of this restlessnes, the Slave kings started to expand their empire and the pre-eminence of Delhi as the Capital city rose. This pre-eminence came at a heavy price as Delhi became a prime target for plunderers. In the absence of a strong and stable ruler to defend it, Delhi fell and the plunderers had a field day. It was razed and plundered by Timor the lame and also by Genghis Khan, perhaps two of the fiercest raiders seen by history[0]. After these plunderers, Delhi faced its worst days, those under Mohammed bin Tughlaq, ironically a strong and wily ruler . Often ridiculed as Mad Mohammed, he was an extraordinary scholar. Brilliant and a spectacular failure[1]. It was Tughlaq who ordered the evacuation of Delhi in a fit of rage. "There shall not be a single kitchen fire left burning in Delhi", the emperor thundered, and in response thousands of Funeral pyres lit up as people died like flies on the road from Delhi to the new capital 1000 miles away[2].
But Delhi's spirit lived, each time Delhi was destroyed, it regenerated right next to its older incarnate. There still stand Tughlaq's Tughlaqabad and Allauddin Khalji's Siri fort. There still remains the Hauz Khas as do numerous other products of the time under the slave dynasties. Each a new face for a horrifyingly resilient city. Not only did Delhi survive, it flourished as a center for religion and for art.
In 1526AD, Ghiasuddin Babar captured Delhi. Using just 25000 men, cavalry and artillery, he routed an army four times his army's size and put to death the last Salve king - Ibrahim Lodhi. The reason for the rout was that Babar introduced artillery to India.
With Ghiasuddin Babar came the Moguls and the Golden era for Delhi. Over the next few centuries the Moguls became perhaps the richest and the most powerful kings in the world. Delhi prospered, this time as Shahjahanabad - the red fort and its walled city. These were 200 years of great calm and progress in Delhi. The moguls had declared at the gates of Shahjahanabad that the city was a heaven on Earth. It very nearly was. Unsurpassed in arts, in trade, in religion and in riches, it boasted an undefeated army.
This prosperity lasted till the moguls lasted. And Aurangzeb was the last of the great moguls. Coming to power as he did, after leading a revolt to kill his brothers, he is widely regarded as a brutal bigoted man. Aurangzeb was nevertheless a very strange person. He is worth knowing a little more because after his death Delhi plunged inexorably towards destruction giving the impression that he was what stood between Delhi and ruin. A spartan, simple and extremely religious man, it is said that he stitched caps to pay for his living. Aurangzeb's empire was progressively weakened by his desire to expand into the south of India. He faced there the Marathas under one of India's most respected politico-military leader Shivaji. When Aurangzeb died the moguls were a mere shadow, a little before his death Aurangzeb wrote to his son that he had been duped by his advisors, that he had been told that India had all the knowledge and all the riches he would ever need. He wrote further that there was a world beyond the mogul court and that this world beyond needed to be seen and explored if the moguls were to prosper. It was a noble thought, but it came too late. Aurangzeb died and anarchy broke loose. None of the new mogul emporers had time to work outside the court, that in itself with its intrigues was a formidable problem.
Rich and weak, Delhi braced again to be ruined and plundered first by Nadir Shah and then by his General Ahmad Shah Abdali. By the Time Abdali left in 1762 AD, all the glory amassed in 200 years was destroyed. By 1856 AD the Mogul empire was dead, fallen prey to British advances in India. The once great Mogul throne that ruled India was reduced to an influence extending a stone's throw in radius. The Mogul empire was dead, it remained to be buried. That happened in 1857 AD when a revolt was organized against the British, after a few months of bloody fighting the moguls lost Delhi forever. The last emperor was exiled to Burma where he died lamenting the lack of a few yards of land in Delhi for his burial. The last mogul princes were beheaded, the headless bodies hung on one of the gates of the city, and the heads sent as presents from the British to the mogul Emporer.
The British fell on Delhi with a vengeance, killing brutally anyone associated with the revolt. Accounts of that time describe graphically mass public hangings and death by firing a cannonball through persons tied to the mouth of a cannon. The retribution ended in 1858 AD and Delhi was then placed under British sovereignty. The British kept Calcutta as their Indian capital for some time, but then in 1911AD Delhi was declared the Capital of India once more, and a new city - Lutyen's Delhi, came up. This, the most modern of the many Delhi's, was built as the administrative center of the British. It is the place where the present day Indian Government has its offices.
Lutyen's Delhi is also called as the New Delhi. Most people regarded it as the last Delhi. But the truth is that there have been many Delhi's that have been built since. In 1947, an extended south Delhi was built for the many refugees of the Indian Partition. In the 1980s and 1990s a big industrial Delhi was built in the north of the city that prospered under the economic and industrial anarchy of the 80s and the 90s. These were all ill conceived plans that failed miserably. Such 'solutions' are constantly offered for the problem of managing a population of 12-15 million in today's Delhi. The simple truth is that a nation like India never had the resources or administrative frame to handle such a monstorously large city.
Now Delhi is a huge impersonal soulless metro, a far cry from the elegant and tragic city it has been throughout its history.
Like in 1984, Delhi sometimes, and thankfully only sometimes, does bare its fangs to remind its residents of its terrible history.
=================
Footnotes
[0] Some accounts potray that the these raids would cut the population of the city down to a third of the original. It is from here that a term called as "Katl-e-aam" came in. It literally means Death to all. It was a sanction to kill at will.
[1]. Blunders from his times include the scheme for copper currency to replace gold currency. These copper coins can still be found lying in his old fort.
[2]. The new capital did not survive long, and Tughlaq moved back to Delhi, that move cost thousands of lives again
