The Incredible History of India's Geography

by Sanjeev Sanyal

  However, it is impossible to prove that this was indeed the city mentioned in the epic. Nothing found so far obviously matches the descriptions of Indraprastha. There is no palace or audience hall that would have made the Kauravas jealous. It could be that archaeologists have not yet found it or that they were swept away by a flood on the Yamuna. But what we can say is that Delhi was an important settlement from very ancient times. An Ashokan rock inscription discovered near the Kalkaji temple in 1996 suggests that Delhi may have included several habitations other than just the one at Purana Qila.

  The first Delhi of which we know was built by the Tomar Rajputs. They made it their headquarters in the eighth century. Their first settlement was at Suraj Kund in the extreme south of Delhi. Water supply was a big concern then (as it is now) and a large stone dam that was built by the Tomars still stands. The nearby village of Anangpur recalls the name of Raja Anang Pal, a Tomar king. A stream from the dam feeds a stepped tank that was probably linked to a temple of the sun god—hence the name Suraj Kund or Pool of the Sun. The lake is often dry now because of urbanization and illegal quarrying.

  In the eleventh century, the Tomars moved farther west and constructed a large fort—Lal Kot or the Red Fort. Shah Jehan’s seventeenth-century Red Fort was not the first to have that name. To mark his place in history, Anang Pal also added his name to the Iron Pillar.

  A century later, the Chauhans of Ajmer took control of the city and further expanded it. It now came to be called Qila Rai Pithora and was the capital of Prithviraj Chauhan. Large sections of the walls of this city can still be seen near Mehrauli village though almost nobody visits them. From the top of the walls, you can see towers and other structures including a major gateway. The urban landscape of Delhi can be seen beyond the trees even as the Qutub Minar looks on sternly.

  When the Turks captured Rai Pithora, they made it their Indian headquarters and began to remodel it for their own use. The Qutub Minar complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has some of the oldest Islamic buildings in northern India. At its centre is the mosque built by Ghori’s slave-general, Qutubuddin Aibak. An inscription to the East gate of the mosque says that it was built on the remains of twenty-seven demolished Hindu-Jain temples. Destroyed idols can still be seen among the columns. The Iron Pillar, However, continued to stand on one side of the mosque courtyard. Was it that the new rulers wanted to use this ancient symbol of power for themselves? It is also possible that Qutubuddin wanted to let it stand in the shadow of his own great pillar—the Qutub Minar, a 72.5m-high stone.

  The Qutub Minar is a truly impressive structure even by modern standards. When the Moroccan traveller Ibn Batuta visited Delhi over a century later, he was stunned by the height of the tower as well the unique metallurgy of the pillar. He tells us that a later sultan wanted to build a tower twice as high but the project was abandoned. The remains of that sultan’s attempt still stand. The sultan was Alauddin Khilji.

  At the beginning of the fourteenth century, Alauddin Khilji built the new fort of Siri at the site of a military camp North-East of the existing city. The main urban centre continued to be in the old city but the sultan, who was worried that he would be assassinated, felt safer within the new fort. But a few years after it had been built, Siri was raided by the Mongols. Alauddin managed to push the Mongols back and then took care to make the fort stronger. This was a wise move because the Mongols were soon back! They succeeded in capturing the main city and looted it. However, Alauddin was safe in Siri for months till the Mongols decided to return.

  There are only a few stretches of walls and other buildings that remain of Siri now. Its site is now occupied by the urban village of Shahpur Jat. This is one of the many villages that live on in modern Delhi and is now dotted with many small offices and designer workshops. The rest of Siri is covered by the Asian Games Village that was built to house athletes for the event in 1982.

  As we’ve seen, water supply has always been a major problem in Delhi. In Khilji’s times, he built a large reservoir called Hauz Khas which still exists and is surrounded by a beautiful park. Overlooking the reservoir are the remains of an old Madrassa (Islamic religious school) built by a later sultan, and the urban village of Hauz Khas. Since the 1990s, this village has changed a lot. Now, there are a number of expensive boutiques and trendy bars there—pretty ironic because Alauddin was a severe man who strictly controlled the prices of all goods and did not permit the buying or sale of alcohol!

  The Khilji dynasty did not survive for long after Alauddin. It was replaced by another dynasty of Turks—the Tughlaqs. The Tughlaqs also decided to build a new city called Tughlaqabad and chose a location to the East of the existing city.

  It is unclear why the first Tughlaq sultan wanted to build yet another city. Why did he choose this particular location? Was it just to satisfy his ego? There is a story that he did this because the sultan used to be just a nobleman serving the Khiljis once upon a time. He had suggested to the then king that this would be a good place to build a city and the king had sarcastically answered, ‘When you are Sultan, build it.’ And that’s just what the first Tughlaq Sultan did!

  Although overgrown and encroached upon, the extensive fortifications and other remains of Tughlaqabad are still very impressive. A secret entrance to the palace, with elaborate passageways, hidden storage rooms and disguised entry and exit, were discovered in the 1990s. The exit is a small opening on the outer wall which looks like a drain. However, though the city looks impressive, it was occupied only for a few years. Probably because of water supply problems!

  Muhammad Tughlaq was the second sultan of this dynasty. He decided to shift his capital a thousand kilometres south to Daulatabad in 1326 CE. The fort was located in a strategically crucial position on the Southern Road or Dakshina Path. It would be easy to make raids from here into southern India. The sultan’s decision made sense but he also insisted that every single person living in the old capital move with him. There is a terrible tale of how an old beggar who couldn’t make the journey was tied to a cart and dragged along for forty days. Obviously, he did not reach the new capital alive.

  After putting the people through such trouble, the sultan changed his mind! The entire population was then made to walk back to Delhi, the old capital. Muhammad decided to expand Delhi and invited settlers from the rest of his empire and from Central Asia. He built a set of walls that connected the old city of Lal Kot with the Khilji fortress of Siri. This was a very large area and it would become the next city of Delhi—Jahanpanah. The older cities continued to have people living in them even as capitals shifted. Even some parts of the abandoned Tughlaqabad were used for storage and to house soldiers. Jahanpanah probably contained open areas and even farming communities within the walls. A massive new palace-complex was built. It is all of this that Ibn Batuta saw when he visited Delhi.

  Ibn Batuta is one of the greatest travel writers of all time. Originally from Tangier in Morocco, he travelled across the known world through North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and India, and eventually to China. He then made his way back to Morocco before orally recording the story of an adventure that had lasted for almost thirty years. When he arrived in Delhi, Muhammad Tughlaq ruled from his new palace in Jahanpanah. This was the time when the sultan was trying to build up the prestige of his court by bringing in learned Muslim scholars. Ibn Batuta thus became part of the court.

  Batuta has left us a very vivid description of the Tughlaq court. One had to pass through three gates to enter the sultan’s audience hall. There was a platform in front of the first gate where the executioners sat. When a man was sentenced to death, he would be executed outside this gate and his body would be left there for three days as a warning to others. At the first gate sat a number of trumpeters and pipe-players. Whenever an important person came, they would blow the trumpets and loudly announce the person’s name. Between the first and second gates, there were platforms occupied by large numbers of palace guards.

  At the se
cond gate sat the royal ushers in gilded caps, the chief usher wielding a golden mace. Inside this gate was a large reception hall where people could sit as they waited for their turn. The visitor would then walk up to the third and final gate where scribes entered the person’s name, time of arrival and other details. A nobleman who didn’t attend the court for more than three days without a valid reason was not allowed beyond this point without the sultan’s permission. Beyond this gate was the main audience hall, a large wooden structure of ‘a thousand pillars’.

  The sultan sat on a raised throne supported by cushions. An attendant stood behind the king and flicked away the flies that may dare to disturb him! and there probably were many flies—you cannot leave dead bodies lying around the front porch for days and not expect pests! In front of the sultan were the members of the royal family, the nobility, the religious leaders, the judiciary and so on. Each person was given a position according to their status. When the sultan arrived and sat down, the whole court rose and shouted ‘Bismillah!’ a hundred of his armed personal guards stood on either side of the throne. Clearly, the sultan was taking no chances.

  Most of the nobility and senior officials were foreigners—Turks but also Khurasanis, Egyptians, Syrians and so on. Ibn Batuta says that Muhammad Tughlaq always gave the high positions to foreigners. This was not unusual. The Turks were an army of occupiers and the Indians—both Hindus and local Muslims—would have been treated with contempt. Indians were probably allowed into the walls of medieval Delhi only as slaves and menial workers. This attitude only changed under the Afghan Suris in the mid-1500s and became a common practice under Mughal emperor Akbar. It was a slow change. Even under Akbar, most of the nobility was foreign-born.

  From time to time, the Tughlaq sultan held banquets. All the guests were seated by rank. Each person was first given a cup of ‘candy-water’ and they had to drink this before they began the meal. Then the food was brought from the kitchen in a procession headed by the Chief Usher carrying a golden mace and his deputy holding a silver mace. As they walked by, they would cry out ‘Bismillah!’ and what was the food like? There were rounds of unleavened bread, roast meats, chicken, rice, sweets and . . . samosas! after the meal, each person was given a tin cup of barley water for the stomach. After this, everyone got paan (betel leaves and areca nuts). When it was all done, the chamberlains cried ‘Bismillah!’ and everyone stood up. We are not sure where exactly Muhammad Tughlaq’s palace stood but the most likely place is the ruins of Bijay Mandal, quite close to IIT Gate. Very few tourists today visit the site. Just behind the Bijay Mandal complex is the Begumpur Mosque which may have once been the imperial mosque.

  Ibn Batuta became afraid of the sultan over time. He eventually attached himself to an embassy to China and fled the country. But as the embassy made its way south, it was repeatedly attacked by bandits. Ibn Batuta was captured and almost killed but was finally set free. The fact that even an imperial embassy was not spared by bandits on a major highway tells us how chaotic things had become under Turkic rule. After many more adventures, Ibn Batuta reached China. But though he is still famous in the Arab world, apart from historians and scholars, his adventures are barely remembered in India. His memory is now limited to a mention in a somewhat silly but popular Hindi song about his shoe!

  The Tughlaq dynasty had built three capitals by now—Tughlaqabad, Daulatabad and Jahanpanah. But they were still not satisfied! Feroze Shah Tughlaq, who came after Muhammad, was an even more enthusiastic builder. He constructed many new structures as well as repaired many of the old ones. He also extended the city northwards by building a fortified palace-complex along the Yamuna called Feroze Shah Kotla.

  The ruins of Feroze Shah Kotla are now near the busy ITO crossing, just behind the offices of India’s leading newspapers. The architects of later Delhi often took their building material from this structure but the site still contains a three-storeyed pavilion topped by the Ashokan pillar that had been carefully brought here by the Sultan. The complex is said to be inhabited by djinns (spirits), and people, mostly Sufi Muslims, often come here and light lamps to console them and also ask for favours. You can see small offerings and walls blackened by the smoke from the lamps. Some of the believers tie colourful strings to the grill put up by the Archaeological Survey to protect the Ashokan pillar—modern Indians thus pay their respect to an ancient imperial pillar in order to communicate with medieval spirits!

  Feroze Shah came to the throne when he was almost a middle-aged man and he ruled till his death. He died after several years of illness at the age of eighty-one. As with Ashoka, his empire was already weakening towards the end and he was followed by rulers who could not manage the empire effectively. The Turko-Mongol raider Taimur the lame (also known as Tamerlane) took this opportunity to sweep into the country from Central Asia in 1398. He defeated the Sultan’s army easily and entered Delhi. He spared Muslim territories but everything else was looted or destroyed. The entire Hindu population was either killed or taken away as slaves. Taimur later wrote in his diary, ‘I was desirous of sparing them but could not succeed as it is the will of God that this calamity should befall this city.’ Somehow, this logic isn’t very convincing, is it?

  After Taimur’s attack, Vijayanagar, in the far south, became the most important city in India for the next one and a half centuries. We’ll talk about this later. Meanwhile, the Tughlaqs were followed by other minor dynasties. Much of their empire was gone but Delhi’s urban habitations continued to enjoy political and economic importance. Like every dynasty that has ruled this city before and after, the rulers of this period also built grand memorials to themselves—the Lodhi Gardens is one such example. Now, the rich and powerful of modern India come here for their walks and to discuss world affairs. It is also a good place for birdwatching.

  In 1526, a Turko-Mongol adventurer called Babur defeated the Sultan of Delhi in what we call the First Battle of Panipat. We know a lot about Babur because he kept a fascinating diary called the Tuzuk-i-Baburi, written in Turkish.

  Babur was a direct descendent of Ghengis Khan from his mother’s side and Taimur the lame on his father’s side. However, Taimur’s empire had been largely lost by the time Babur was born. At the age of twelve, Babur inherited a tiny kingdom in the beautiful Ferghana valley in Central Asia. It could barely support an army of three to four thousand men but even with this small military force, he tried to capture Taimur’s capital of Samarkhand many times. He even managed to do it for a brief while but couldn’t hold on to it. The Uzbeks chased him out of there and he made his way south with a small band of followers. He won and lost many battles along the way till he gained control of Kabul. And then, he began to look towards India.

  It was a daring ambition because his army was much smaller than the Sultan’s, but Babur had a secret weapon— matchlock guns. This was the first time that guns would be used in north India. Babur defeated the Sultan and quickly went on to beat all other rivals, including the Rajputs. And thus began the Mughal (i.e. Mongol) empire in India. The dynasty did not call itself the Mughals though. The name they preferred was ‘Gurkhani’—which comes from ‘Gurkhan’ or ‘son-in-law’. Taimur liked to call himself by this name after he was married to a princess from the Ghengiz Khan dynasty.

  Ghengiz or Chengiz Khan was the founder of the Mongol empire, one of the largest in history. He united the nomadic Mongol tribes and carried out a number of brutal invasions. The Mongols would eventually come to control lands from Eastern Europe and Iran, across Central Asia, to China.

  Although Babur had finally conquered this region, what he really wanted was Samarkhand. He did not think very highly of India. In his opinion, Hindustan ‘is a place of little charm. There is no beauty in its people, no graceful social intercourse, no poetic talent or understanding, no etiquette, nobility or manliness. The arts and crafts have no harmony or symmetry. There are no good horses, meat, grapes, melons, or other fruits. There is no ice, cold water, good food or bread in the markets.’ The
n why did Babur invade India at all? He’s quite honest about it: ‘The one nice aspect of Hindustan is that it is a large country with lots of gold and money.’

  Babur died less than five years after he came to India. After him came his son Humayun, who started the construction of the next Delhi—Dinpanah. Built just south of Feroze Shah Kotla, along the river Yamuna, it included a Citadel that we now know as Purana Qila (or Old Fort). As we have discussed, this is said to be the site of ancient Indraprastha but there is nothing to suggest that this is why Humayun chose this place. In addition to the Citadel, there was a fortified city. Not much has survived of Dinpanah except one of its impressive gates—the Lal Darwaza (Red Gate). You can see this massive structure across the road from Purana Qila and Delhi Zoo.

  But Humayun did not complete either Dinpanah or Purana Qila. He was chased out by a group of Afghan rebels led by Sher Shah Suri. He escaped with his family to Persia and it was Sher Shah Suri who completed the construction of Purana Qila. Though he ruled for a short time, Sher Shah Suri introduced many vital changes. He reorganized tax collection, minted the first silver Rupiya (the earliest version of the modern Indian rupee) and revived the ancient city of Pataliputra (Patna). He also rebuilt the ancient Uttara Path highway from Punjab to Bengal. Known as Sadak-e-Azam (or Great Road), it became a major artery of the Mughal period. The British called it the Grand Trunk Road which, as we know, is now part of the Golden Quadrilateral.

  Sher Shah Suri died in a gunpowder-related accident just after five years on the throne. Humayun came back and reoccupied Delhi. But it seemed as if Sher Shah Suri’s bad luck had followed him, too. On one fateful day, Humayun went to watch the rise of Venus from the roof of his library. On his way down the steep stairs, he tripped on his robe and died from the fall. Humayun’s library building is still there in Purana Qila. The stairway also exists but is not open to the public.