The Indian capital city of Delhi has a long history, including a history as the capital of several empires. The earliest architectural relics date back to theMaurya Period(c. 300 BC); since then, the site has seen continuous settlement. In 1966, an inscription of theMauryan Emperor Ashoka(273-236 BC) was discovered near Srinivaspuri, which is near Noida. Two sandstone pillars inscribed with the edicts of Ashoka were brought to the city by Firuz Shah Tughluq in the 14th century. The famous Iron pillar near the Qutub Minar was commissioned by the emperor Kumara Gupta I of the Gupta dynasty (320-540) and transplanted to Delhi during the 10th century. Eight major cities have been situated in the Delhi area. The first four cities were in the southern part of present-day Delhi.
According to Indian folklore, Delhi was the site of the magnificent and opulent Indraprastha, capital of the Pandavas in the Indian epic Mahabharata, founded around 2500 BC. Hindu texts state that the city of Delhi used to be referred to in Sanskrit as Hastinapur, which means"elephant-city". A village called Indraprast existed in Delhi until the beginning of the 19th century. The British demolished the ancient village to make way for the construction of New Delhi in the late 19th century. Archaeological evidence suggests that Indraprastha once stood where the Old Fort is today. Excavations have unearthed shards of the grey painted ware (c. 1000 BC) that some archaeologists associate with the age of the Mahabharata, but no coherent settlement traces have been found.
The Tomar dynasty founded Lal Kot in 736 near the Qutub Minar, at Mehrauli. The Prithviraj Raso names the Tomar Anangpal as the founder of Lal Kot, whose name is inscribed on Iron Pillar of Delhi at Qutb complex, ascribed to Chandra or Chandragupta II.
A contemporary account of the city of Delhi in the Tomar period is given byVibudh Shridhar. He describes an immense fort surrounded by a moat beside the Ananga lake. The markets were full of commodities like cloth, grain, betel-nuts, sweets etc as well as accounting books. He also implies that Delhi was a center of learning where eloquent language was spoken. The pinnacles of the city gates were gilded with gold and buildings were studded with gems.
The Chauhan kings of Ajmer conquered Lal Kot in 1180 and renamed it Qila Rai Pithora.The Chauhan king Prithviraj III was defeated in 1192 by the Afghan Muhammad Ghori. Anangpal Tomar, a Chandravanshi Gurjar Rajput ruler of Delhi, often described as the founder of Delhi, built the citadel some 10 kilometres from Suraj Kund around 731.
From 1206, Delhi became the capital of the Delhi Sultanate under the Slave Dynasty. The first Sultan of Delhi, Qutb-ud-din Aybak, was a former slave who rose through the ranks to become a general, a governor and then Sultan of Delhi. Qutb-ud-din started the construction of theQutub Minar, a recognisable symbol of Delhi, to commemorate his victory but died before its completion. In the Qutb complex he also constructed theQuwwat-al-Islam (might of Islam), which is the earliest extant mosque in India. He was said to have destroyed twenty-seven Jain temples initially housed in the Qutb complex and pillaged exquisitely carved pillars and building material from their debris for this mosque, many of which can still be seen. After the end of the Slave dynasty, a succession of Turkic Central Asian and Afghan dynasties, the Khilji dynasty, the Tughluq dynasty, the Sayyid dynasty and the Lodi dynasty held power in the late medieval period and built a sequence of forts and townships in Delhi.
In 1398, Taimur Lang invaded India on the pretext that the Muslim sultans of Delhi were too tolerant of their Hindu subjects. After defeating the armies of Nasiruddin Mahmud of Tughlaq dynasty, on December 15, 1385, Taimur entered Delhi on December 18, 1398, and the city was sacked, destroyed, and left in ruins, and over 100,000 war prisoners were killed as well. In 1526, following the First Battle of Panipat, Zahiruddin Babur, the former ruler of Fergana, defeated the last Afghan Lodi sultan and founded the Mughal dynasty which ruled from Delhi, Agra and Lahore.
In the mid-sixteenth century there was an interruption in the Mughal rule of India as Sher Shah Suri defeated Babur's son Humayun and forced him to flee to Afghanistan and Persia. Sher Shah Suri, built the sixth city of Delhi, as well as the old fort known as Purana Qila even though this city was settled since the ancient era. After Sher Shah Suri’s death, Humayun recovered the throne with Persian help. The third and greatest Mughal emperor,Akbar, moved the capital to Agra resulting in a decline in the fortunes of Delhi. In the mid-seventeenth century, the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (1628-1658) built the city that sometimes bears his name Shahjahanabad, the seventh city of Delhi that is more commonly known as the old city or old Delhi. This city contains a number of significant architectural features, including theRed Fort (Lal Qila) and the Jama Masjid. The old city served as the capital of the later Mughal Empire from 1638 onwards, when Shah Jahan transferred the capital back from Agra. Aurangzeb (1658-1707) crowned himself as emperor in Delhi in 1658 at the Shalimar garden ('Aizzabad-Bagh) with a second coronation in 1659. Nader Shah defeated the Mughal army at the huge Battle of Karnal in February, 1739. After this victory, Nader captured and sacked Delhi.
The decline of the Mughal Empire had led to territorial gains for the Maratha Confederacy. The decline of the Mughal Empire had accelerated since the death of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, in 1707. Continued rebellions by the Marathas in the south, and the de-facto separation of a number of states (including Hyderabad and Bengal), weakened the state further. The Marathas reversed all Mughal territorial gains in the Deccan, and conquered almost all Mughal territory in central and north India. Mughals had thus become just the titular heads of Delhi and remained so till 1857. In 1761, Delhi was raided by Ahmed Shah Abdali after the Third battle of Panipat. At the Battle of Delhi on 11 September 1803, General Lake's British forces defeated the Marathas.
Delhi passed to British control in 1857 after the First War of Indian Independence; the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar II was exiled to Rangoon and the remaining Mughal territories were annexed as a part of British India.
Shortly after Indian Rebellion of 1857, Calcutta was declared the capital of British India but in 1911 the capital was again moved to Delhi. Parts of the old city were pulled down to create New Delhi, a monumental new quarter of the city designed by the British architect Edwin Lutyens to house the government buildings. A brief but fascinating account of the Indian contractors behind this construction can be found in Khushwant Singh's autobiography Truth, Love and a Little Malice.New Delhi was officially declared as the seat of the Government of India after independence in 1947. During the Partition of India thousands ofHindu andSikh refugees from WestPunjab migrated to Delhi, and subsequently settled in North and West Delhi areas, while Hindus from East Pakistan, settled in late 1960s at EPDP Colony (EPDP: East Pakistan Displaced Persons) in South Delhi, later named Chittaranjan Park in 1980s.