THE British built their grandiose capital on Raisina Hill, overlooking the Purana Qila. It sought to establish its links with Delhi’s long past, a city of continuity. Three types of city existed in memory: the epic city, the ‘invisible’ city of the sultans and the city of the imagination, Shahjahanabad.

Long, long ago in the age of the Mahabharata, a city named Indraprastha stood on the banks of the Yamuna. The Pandava city had very few equals and it said there were gateways as high as mountains and which looked like clouds. The city was laid out with many delightful gardens, adorned with flowering and fruit bearing trees that were alive with birds of various species. These ‘verdant groves always resounded with the notes of maddened peacocks and kokilas (blackbirds)’ …and so lived on this city in the collective memory of the Indians. Indraprastha has been identified with the mound on which stands the 16th century fort and city of Dinpanah, now known as Purana Qila, and archaeological finds of painted grey ware pottery indicate that it was indeed an ancient site dating to about 1000 BC.

Even older than this are innumerable Harappan sites that dot the hinterland of Delhi. One can see the finds of these sites in the Delhi museum. Delhi’s history pre-dates the epics by at least 500-1000 years. Archaeology added yet another layer to Delhi’s history and it was the discovery of a stone edict of Ashoka, the great Mauryan king (304-232 BC). The edict states that all men, rich and poor, can follow the dhamma and attain heaven. In the Pali tradition, it is believed that the Buddha preached the dhamma to the Kuru people on this spot.

The remains of the second, ‘invisible’ city are scattered islands on the fast track that is modern Delhi. Urban villages such as Mehrauli, Chiragh, Hauz Rani, Adchini, Kotla Mubarakpur or Khirki are leftovers of the past and on Sundays one can see young boys from the local madrassas emerging like playful ghosts clad in white, from localities now occupied by refugees and immigrants. Only then does one realize that the real Delhiwallahs are trapped in the ‘hidden city’.

Delhi lies in the watershed of the Indus and Ganges river systems and is bounded by a rocky spine of the Ridge on one side and the alluvial plains of the Yamuna river. In the 11th century, a Rajput prince of the Tomara clan, dug his heels into the outcrop of the Aravalli mountains and built his city in the Suraj Kund area and later at Lal Kot. From that time to now this city, whichever name it had, has continued to grow and shrink, home to empires, kingdoms and the ambitions of so many.

 

In the Qutb Minar complex there is the Iron Pillar which has an inscription by Chandragupta II (375-425 AD); where it came from or whether it was found in the area, remains a mystery. Ibn Batuta, the Moroccan traveller, was so impressed by it, ‘an awe inspiring column, and nobody knows of what metal it is constructed… it is called haft jush which means seven metals.’ The legend goes that the snake Vasuki was pinned underground by this pillar. When Anang Pal, the Tomara king of Lal Kot pulled out the pillar and set the serpent free, it was predicted that no king would rule Delhi forever and since then the city has seen the Chauhans, Slave kings, Khaljis, Tughluqs, Sayyids, Lodhis, Mughals, British and now our politicians rule from here.

The Tomara Rajputs were succeeded by the Chauhan Rajputs who built a city, Qila Rai Pithora in the Lal Kot area. The last Chauhan king, Prithviraj, the hero of Chand Bardai’s Prithvirajaraso, ruled a splendid city in the Mehrauli area. Samyukta, the daughter of Jaichand of Kannauj, was abducted by him during her svayamvara, when she garlanded the statue of Prithviraj. The angry Jaichand never forgave him and invited Mohammed of Ghor in Afghanistan to invade the Chauhan kingdom. Prithviraj was defeated in 1192 and the Ghorid armies occupied Qila Rai Pithora. The new dispensation was to rule from here and the first thing they did was to construct a Friday mosque with the fallen temple pillars and the 72m high Qutb Minar. The finely carved pillars that are placed one above each other give evidence to the sophistication of Qila Rai Pithora.

Qutbuddin Aibak became the first Sultan of Delhi from 1206 to 1210. The sultans of Delhi who succeeded him were a peripatetic bunch and tended to move their capitals south or east of the Delhi region, very much like changing houses! The slave kings – Iltutmish, briefly Raziya Sultana and Balban – ruled from the Qila until the city grew and water shortage led the Sultan, Kaikobad (1287) to shift to Kilokari, near the Yamuna river. The Slave dynasty was replaced by an Afghan officer, Jalaluddin Khalji in 1290. He turned out to be a weak and ineffectual ruler and was assassinated by his ambitious nephew, Alauddin (1296-1316). Alauddin’s rule is marked by conquests, especially that of the Deccan, as it opened the sultanate to many more cultural influences. He too built his city and legend says that the heads of rebellious Mongols were buried under the walls and hence it was named Siri.

 

Ghiyasuddin Tughluq deposed the last Khalji ruler and built Tughlaqabad. While he was building his fortified city, the great Sufi Nizamuddin Auliya was excavating a tank near his shrine. The furious sultan declared that only his work would be done by the workers. The defiant Saint worked by night; in response the Sultan forbade the sale of oil. Then the miracle happened! The water turned to oil! Nizamuddin cursed the arrogant sultan and predicted that Tughlaqabad would soon become the haunt of Gujjars or nomad shepherds, which it indeed became. Ghiyasuddin died in an ‘accident’ and rumours has it that his son, Muhammed bin Tughluq (1320-1388) was responsible.

This colourful sultan was responsible for the transfer of his capital to the Deccan, a thousand miles away, and when this did not work out, forced the citizens to return. He also enclosed the earlier cities of Delhi into a single unit and named it Jahanpanah. It was this city that was destined to wealth and greatness. The Mongols under Genghiz Khan had laid waste the great cities of Central and West Asia, so scholars and men of talent flocked to his court. Ibn Batuta who served for some time as qadi, has left a colourful description of the times. He describes Delhi as ‘…the metropolis of India, a vast and magnificent city, uniting beauty with strength. It is surrounded by a wall that has no equal in the world, and is the largest city in India, nay rather the largest city in the entire Muslim Orient…’

 

Muhammed’s nephew, Feroze Tughluq built Ferozabad along the river, but Jahanpanah remained the main hub. Around the Hauz Khas tank was the madrassa, the centre of education, where scholars conversed in the fine musk scented courtyards while along the banks of the hauz were the homes of musicians whose songs must have filled the air. In 1398, Timur the King of Samarkand, marched into India and destroyed Ferozabad as well as the old Jahanpanah and carried away architects and masons to build the mosque at Samarkand. Here is his account:

‘The flames of strife were thus lighted and spread through the whole city from Jahánpanáh and Sírí to Old Dehlí, burning up all it reached. … Although I was desirous of sparing them I could not succeed, for it was the will of Allah that this calamity should fall upon the city.’

Thus the populous city of Jahanpanah lay waste and the succeeding sultans of the Sayyids and Lodhi dynasty shifted out; in fact, Sikandar Lodhi moved to Agra. In 1526, Babur the Mughal defeated the Lodhi sultan and later his son, Humayun built Dinpanah atop the mound of Indrapat (Indraprastha?). It was occupied briefly by Sher Shah Suri and his successors (1530-1555). After Humayun’s death in 1565, the Mughals moved to Agra where they lived out their spectacular period until Shah Jahan left Agra.

 

It is said that Delhi is the home of 24 sufis of which the most famous belong to the old Jahanpanah area. They are Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki whose khanqah was established in Mehrauli in 1211. There is a lovely tale of King Solomon who was flying around on his throne on a dark night, and when he came to Delhi, noticed a heavenly light beaming down upon the city. The king asked, ‘What is this hallowed place?’ The angels answered, ‘It is the resting place of God’s friend.’ The Qutb Minar too is named after this great saint.

Nizamuddin Auliya (1261-1325), a disciple of the famous Chishti saint of the Punjab, Baba Farid, settled in the village of Ghiyaspur, which is the present village of Nizamuddin. His famous disciples included Sheikh Nasiruddin Mahmud, or Chiragh-e-Delhi whose dargah is in Chiragh village, and the poet, musician and scholar, Amir Khusrau, who is buried in the Nizamuddin dargah. There is another fascinating story of Nizamuddin and the last Khalji sultan, Mubarak Shah. All the worthy folk paid obeisance at his court, except Nizamuddin Auliya. Once the sultan ordered him to attend or else…! The great sufi was unperturbed. He went to his mother’s grave and when he returned asked his troubled disciples to go and rest. The next morning, dramatic news hit Delhi: Mubarak Shah had been brutally murdered! This ended the rule of the Khaljis. The third great sufi was Nasiruddin, Chiragh-e-Delhi (d. 1356) who established his khanqah in the urban village of Chiragh.

These khanqahs were great spiritual establishments as also centres of music, dance and the dastangoi or storytelling. Nizamuddin’s most famous pupil, Amir Khusrau (1253-1325) was a great poet and a musician and the dilli gharana was enriched by his genius. Amir Khusrau wrote in Persian, the court language and in Hindawi, the local language. He is known from Istanbul to Isfahan and from Kabul to Rangoon and it is said that he invented the sitar and the qawwali.

The khanqahs had their own singers, the sawant-bache and the qawwal-bache. Thursday nights in Nizamuddin are still alive with qawwali, much frequented by local residents and visitors and there is after this sublime music, delicious kebabs to be had at Karims! These khanqahs were a meeting place for all castes and creeds and the roots of synthesis began here.

 

The city of Delhi with its large numbers of tombs, gardens, hunting lodges and other monuments is where one can trace the experiments between the architectural styles of the original Islamic world and the Indian, which led to the development of an unique architectural style. It all started in the Qutb complex with the Quwwat ul Islam mosque’s tentative attempt with arch building and within the complex there are also experiments in building of domes. The masons who were local copied the designs of Central Asia and other parts of the Islamic world and, as time went on, added their own architectural detail. The later Tughluq, Sayyid and Lodhi buildings show a more confident amalgamation of styles, as both builder and patron began to share similar aesthetics.

Languages such as Saraiki, the speech that developed in sarais, or khariboli, or dehlavi or Urdu came about when common people from Central Asia, Afghanistan, Iran and India communicated with each other. While the court spoke Persian, these local dialects went on to develop into Urdu that became the language of the civilized, of tameez or civilized behaviour by the 18th century.

 

In 1630, Shah Jahan moved from Agra to build his new city on the banks of the Yamuna, beyond Ferozabad. Shahjahanabad became the resplendent city in history and of the imagination. What was at that time the old city of the sultans, lay in ruins and was probably a string of urban villages. Presumably the upwardly mobile from there shifted into Shah Jahan’s city along with outsiders and populated the new city. It is here that the long centuries of Indian and Central Asian, Hindu and Muslim interaction bore the fruit of an exquisite synthesis of which Urdu was one of the by-products.

Shahjahanabad, built according to the Hindu architectural principles of the Vaastu Shastra, is shaped like a bow, fronted by the river. Well, here were coffee shops where once swashbuckling noblemen and princes flocked to hear the latest couplets composed by great poets such as Bedil, Dard, Sauda and Mir Taqi Mir and the great Mirza Ghalib, who made the galis of the city famous and here the language of the ghazal entered eternity. On a moonlit night, the central canal, Nahri-Bihisht (Canal of Paradise) which ran through the centre of Chandni Chowk, was white gold, redolent with the perfumes of Hindustan!

After 1707, Mughal power weakened and the city. Bloodshed, effete emperors, dancing girls, ruthless protectors and looters filled the pages of history books. Mir Taqi Mir said:

‘Everyday there is a new master of the world-

‘Is Power a beggar going from door to door?’

Shahjahanabad in its heyday, was more beautiful than Baghdad and Constantinople. Over the centuries, it has been destroyed and looted by the armies of Nadir Shah (1739) and Ahmad Shah Abdali in 1748. Mir Taqi Mir describes Shahjahanabad after the latter’s destruction – ‘They knocked down doors of the houses and tied up the owners and some they burned while others they beheaded. A world was destroyed! They did not let up for three days and nights… the wealthy were turned into beggars. Those who set the style in clothes now went about naked…

 

The continuous attacks by Jats, Sikhs and Marathas and ruthless mercenaries further weakened the city. Yet, inspite of an empty treasury and political problems, Delhi saw a great flowering as a centre of trade, wealth and civilization in the 18th and 19th centuries. Darbari or court music and dance developed at the court of the sultans and the Mughals. The dhrupad-dhamar form led to the khayal which reached great heights in the 18th century under Mohammed Shah Rangila (1719-1748) and in Bahadur Shah Zafar’s age (1837-1857), memories of Tanras and Miyan Achpal recalled the lyricism of spring and post monsoon festivals. The best known was Sair-e-Gulfaroshan or Phoolwalon ki Sair which was in celebration of the flower sellers of Mehrauli who until very recently plied their trade on the busy MG Road. Floral pankhas were carried from the ancient Jogmaya temple and the khanqah of Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki and music and dance concerts were held.

Delhi too became the home of a cuisine which drew from the Jain, Rajasthani, Awadhi and Central Asian traditions to create its own blend, echoes of which still live on. There are still famous eating places of which the earliest is the Ghantewala Halwai, or the paratha shops of Parathewali Gali and Karims, famous for its Mughal cuisine.

Shahjahanabad only has memories now, in the names, in the kuchas, which were occupation-specific zones, in the katras, the workplace and homes of craftsmen, in the special markets like the spice market of Khari Baoli, or Kinari Bazaar of glitter and gauze, and the paper market of Chawri Bazaar. Ghalib wrote after the devastation of 1857:

‘An ocean of blood churns around me- Alas! Were these all! The future will show What more remains for me to see.’

The final blow was delivered by the Partition of 1947 and today, what is now called the Old City, is a pale shadow of itself. All this happened in a city called Shahjahanabad.

 

Did the other cities of Delhi leave behind a legacy comparable to this? Yes, it was carried over into Shahjahanabad and in the four centuries of sultanate rule, these ideas were developed and refined. It needed the genius of the Mughals to create a finished product of unsurpassable excellence. They sadly presided over not only the pinnacle but also the decay of an Indo-Islamic civilization where Delhi was its capital city. Even the British city and later, India’s capital city, have only added yet another layer, another dimension. Although today the demographic profile is changing and the city is reaching out to a national and global destiny, the city re-emerges with its historic legacy that is remembered, recalled and reinvented to suit the demands of today.

* Premola Ghose is the author of Tales of Historic Delhi, 2011.