History of Delhi
Delhi is described as an ancient and holy city which was the abode of the gods, a sacred spot where Lord Indra celebrated an event known as Rahas, for merry-making, along with fellow gods
A few miles from the city is the spot where the great sage Vishwamitra used to live, pray and worship.
The site was earlier known as Prabhashkund but has now become known as Surajkund.
However, the settlement around was known as Sohna, meaning lovely, later translated as Dilli, meaning heart-touching.
The same town later came to be called Indraprastha, after Lord Indra, the highest-ranking among the gods.
Thus the original name of Delhi was Indraprastha
Some people say that Delhi was named after the ruler Raja Dalpal while others say that it gets its name from a marshland (dal-dal), but it is situated on a hilly tract
Pandavas had shifted their capital to the city from Hastinapur.
In Sher Shah’s time, it came to be known as Shergarh, and during Humayun’s reign, it became Din Panah.
certain buildings were erected during the time of Emperor Ashoka, who ruled around 332BC3 in Magadh
Raja Anangpal Tomar built a city and a fort in the year 1223 in his name.
Later, in 580 AH (1184), Raja Prithviraj Chauhan built a fortress, a palace, an orchard, and a leisure retreat, whose remains are still evident in the village of Mehrauli. According to several historians, it was Prithviraj who built the first storey of Qutub Minar (the original name of it is Vishnu Dwaj) in order to perform his daily ritual of worshipping the rising sun before taking his first meal of the day.
The invasions of Shihabuddin Muhammad Ghori led to the advent of Islam in India.
The joint forces of Prithviraj and other Hindu kings repulsed the first massive invasion in the year 587 AH (1191) at Tarawadi (modern-day Taraori).
But the invader returned the following year with a much larger force at his command, resulting in the Hindu rajas’ downfall on the same battlefield.
Khande Rao, known for his exceptional gallantry and courage, was killed, and Prithviraj was taken prisoner on the banks of Saraswati River
In the year 589 AH (1194), the defeat of Jai Chand, a cousin brother of Prithviraj, drove the final nail in the coffin of Hindu rule in India.
Ghori himself chose to return home after handing over the reins of governance to Qutbuddin Aibak, his favourite slave, to rule India on his behalf. This led to the foundation of the Sultanate of Delhi. Qutbuddin as the first ruler of the Slave dynasty.
his demise, his son Aram Shah took over for a brief period but being addicted to a life of ease and luxury, he proved to be an incapable ruler and was deposed. Turkish chiefs then chose Shamsuddin Altamash (also Iltutmish), a talented slave of Aibak, to take over the reins of the Sultanate. He also built the famous Qutub Minar in Dehli, naming it after his mentor Qutbuddin Aibak.
internal strife and internecine quarrels caused instability and unrest until Sultan Nasiruddin Mahmud took over the sultanate’s reins in 644 AH (1246)
rulers from Central Asian states arrived in Dehli and sought refuge to escape the terror of the Mongols – the clan of Genghis Khan.
Balban got the refugee princes settled in different parts of Dehli and created space for them by establishing localities and colonies under their names.
