Delhi is a city of mysterious eternity where an empire rose and fell before the dawn of history. Here the old ruins declare a majestic and imperial past. The eternal Yamuna bears witness to the glorious and turbulent 5,000 year old history of Delhi. A history which begins with the creation of Indraprastha by the Pandavas and the transformation of this barren gift of the Kauravas into a peaceful retreat.

It's hard to think of Delhi as anything but the capital of India but for a surprisingly long time Delhi was not the hot seat of power. Delhi has always been a convenient link between Central Asia, the northwest frontiers and the rest of the country. An inscription dating from the time of Asoka, the famous Mauryan king, tells us that Delhi was on the great northern highway of the Mauryas and linked their capital Patliputta (near modern Patna, Bihar) with Taxila (Takshashila), now in Pakistan. This was apparently the route that Buddhist monks took on their way to Taxila, the intellectual hotbed in those days, and Central Asia.

The real foundations of modern Delhi, however, were laid in 736 AD by the Tomar Rajput rulers who built the fortified Lal Kot near Mehrauli. In 1180, the Chauhans expanded this settlement and established Qila Rai Pithora, considered the first city of Delhi. Hardly any remnants of this original settlement can be found today, though some of its walls were used to build the Qutb Minar in the 13th century AD. The builder of Qutb Minar, Qutb-ud-din-Aibak, founded the slave dynasty or the Delhi Sultanate with its base at Lal Kot. In 1290, Ala-ud-din Khilji, the most dynamic of the Delhi sultans came to power in Delhi.

With the ascendancy of the Tughlaq dynasty, the third city of Tughlaqabad was set up about 8 kms from Lal Kot. This citadel habitation was soon abandoned when the capital of the Tughlaqs was shifted down south to Daulatabad.

In 1398, the Mongolian army of Timur invaded Delhi and plundered it. The Lodi dynasty, which came to power in the 15th century, constructed several fine monuments that are well preserved around the Lodi Garden area. The increasing power of the Lodis was cut short in 1526, when Ibrahim Lodi died fighting Babur on the plains of Panipat, close to Delhi. Sher Shah, the great administrator who expanded his kingdom across the plains of India and built the arterial Grand Trunk Road, re-built the city and named it Shergarh. The ramparts of this city, now known as Purana Qila, lie to the southwest of New Delhi.

Delhi had been the seat of Mughal rule and the Mughal capital in the medieval period. The Mughal emperor Shah Jahan built his fort, the Lal Qila and the huge well laid out city, Shahjahanabad, in 1648 AD. It took 10 years to build. The city fort had 14 gates many of which still exist. This city survives as the old Delhi of today.

Finally, the British built New Delhi, south of Shahjahanabad and shifted their capital from Calcutta in 1931. In the six decades since the creation of New Delhi as the Capital of British India, the city has undergone a sea change.

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