Page 97 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - India

DELHI  95

Early Capitals of Delhi

Delhi’s famous “seven cities” range from the 12th-century Qila Rai Pithora, built
by Prithviraj Chauhan, to the imperial Shahjahanabad, constructed by the Mughals in
the 17th century. Each of these cities comprised the settlements that grew around the
forts erected by powerful sultans with territorial ambitions. As the Delhi Sultans
consolidated their territories, they moved their defensively situated capitals in the
rocky outcrops of the Aravallis, to the northeast, towards the open plains by the banks
of the Yamuna. Today, Delhi is an amalgam of the ruins of medieval citadels, palaces,
tombs and mosques, and an ever-expanding, modern concrete jungle.
Ferozabad (see p91), stretching
north from Hauz Khas to the
banks of the Yamuna, is Delhi’s
fifth city built by Feroze Shah
Tughluq (r.1351–88).

Shahjahanabad
Shahjahanabad was Delhi’s
seventh city, built between 1638
and 1649 by Shah Jahan who Ferozabad
shifted the Mughal capital here
from Agra (see pp172–81).
Purana
Qila
Siri, Delhi’s
second city
can still be
seen near the Siri
Fort Auditorium
and the adjacent
village of Shahpur
Jat. The once Purana Qila (see p83),
prosperous city the citadel of Delhi’s
of Siri was built sixth city, Dinpanah,
by Alauddin Khilji Siri was built by Humayun.
around 1303. It was captured and
occupied by the
Jahanpanah Afghan chieftain, Sher
Shah Sur (r.1540–45)
Qila Rai
Pithora who called it Shergarh.
Tughluqabad

Jahanpanah was built
by Muhammad bin
Tughluq (r.1325–51) as a Qila Rai Pithora, the first of Tughluqabad (see p99), a
walled enclosure to link Delhi’s seven cities, was built by dramatic fort on the foothills of
Qila Rai Pithora and Siri. the Chauhans in about 1180. In the Aravallis, was Delhi’s third
The ruined battlements 1192, it was captured by city built during Ghiyasuddin
of Delhi’s fourth city Qutbuddin Aibak who established Tughluq’s four-year reign
stand near Chiragh. (1320–24).
his capital here (see pp96–7).

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