EVOLUTION OF

SETTELMENTS AND PLANNING PROCESS

OLD DELHI

The Maharaja Sayajirao University,

Vadodara MURP-2014/15 | PARTH SADARIA
DELHI
• Delhi stands with the oldest cities of the world like Rome and Istanbul.
• Delhi was even called the ‘Rome of the East’ or ‘Rome of Asia’ .
• Delhi is a city that bridges two different worlds……
• Old Delhi, once the capital of Islamic India, is a web of narrow
lanes lined with crumbling havelis and mosques.
• New Delhi created by the British Raj is composed of spacious,
tree-lined avenues and imposing government buildings.
• Many a times the city was built, destroyed and then rebuilt.
• A number of Delhi's rulers played a dual role, first as destroyers
and then as creators.
• Delhi has been the political hub of India.
• The Pandavas of the Mahabharata had their capital at Indraprastha,
which is believed to have been geographically located in today's
Delhi.
OLD DELHI – MSU MURP-I | PARTH SADARIA
 GEOGRAPHY
• Delhi is second-largest metropolis city
and Capital of India. It is the third
largest city.
• Delhi is main starting point for North
India. It is surrounded on three sides
by Haryana and to the east, across the
river Yamuna by Uttar Pradesh.
• The Yamuna river and terminal
part of the Aravali hills range are
the two main geographical features
of the city.
• These area of the city’s lungs and
help maintain its environment. The
Yamuna River is Delhi’s main source
of drinking .
 “THE SEVEN CITIES OF DELHI”
 Indraprastha c. 1450 BC
 Lal Kot c. 700-1000 AD
 Qila Rai Pithora 1170 AD
 Mehrauli 1192 AD
 Siri c. 1300 AD
 Tughlaqabad c. 1330 AD
 Ferozabad 1354 AD
 Dilli Sher Shah 1540 AD
 Shahajahanabad 1639 AD
INDRAPRASTH Of Mahabharat
• Delhi is an ancient city .It is said that after Rome
Delhi has the largest number of 500 years old
buildings.
• The oldest reference to Delhi is in Mahabharat when
lord Krishna asks for five villages for Pandavas ie
Indrapat, Bagpat,Sonipat , Tilpat & Panipat(Current
names).
• Indraprasth is the ancient name of Delhi and possibly
the oldest name of the city.
• ASI excavations have revealed a three thousand year
old inhabitation at Purana Quila area .
• Village Indrapat finds a mention in old British time
records in same area till new Delhi started getting
constructed .
• Curiously Delhi government website does not
recognise it as the first Delhi .
• We do call it the first Delhi. Mahabharat and
Dhritrashtra
LAL KOT & QILA RAI PITHORA
• The iron pillar of Mehrauli is having some
inscription of Gupta period.
• In 1966 an Ashokan rock edict was discovered in
Sriniwaspuri area.
• The next mention of Delhi is of a fort named ‘
Lal Kot’ made by Inscriptions Prithvi Raj
Chauhan Anangpal (731-36 AD) .
• Suraj Kund was made by another Tomar King.
• Lalkot was extended and renamed by Prithvi Raj
Chauhan as ‘ Quila Rai Pithora’.
• This is generally believed to be the second
Delhi.
• Thick walls of both the the fort are still left
intact near Lado Sarai in Delhi.
• Lalkot Wall Site Quila Rai Pithora
MEHRAULI – Slave Dynasty
• After Prithvi Raj Chauhan ,the city went into the
control of Islamic invaders for more than seven
hundred years who made several important
buildings which have survived the passage of
time .
• Mohammed Ghauri left a slave Qutubuddin
Aibak in charge of Qutub Minar Two Views
Delhi.
• He used art work of some old Jain and hindu
temples and with some new materials made
Qutab Minar at Mehrauli in the year 1193 A.D.
• Allauddin Khilji tried making another copy of
Qutub Minar just near by but left it unfinished .
• It can also be seen near Qutab Minar
Unfinished Qutub Broken Temple Remains
SIRI – Allauddin Khilji
• Alauddin Khilji ( 1296AD) is the next big name in
Delhi’s history .
• His tomb is at Hauzkhas lake made by him.
• The Siri fort is supposed to have eight thousand
severed heads of invading Mongols burried
under it by Allauddin.
• Siri is a word derived from hindi word
Allauddins Makbara Hauz khas lake.
• Chor Minar is a small tower on which severed
heads of thieves , criminals and invaders were
hung.
• Alluddin Khilji’s Delhi is generally called the
third city of Delhi.
• Madarsa at Hauz Khas Chor Minar
TUGHLAQABAD – Mohammad Bin Tughlaq
• Ghiasuddin Tughlak (1326 AD), the founder of
Tughlak Dynasty , made the Tughlakabad fort .
• His tomb is also near by . There is a big water
reservoir called Baoli .
• It is said that when his fort was being made, the
labour used to work at night for Hazrat
Nizamuddin to Ghiassuddin’s Makbara
Tughlakabad Fort make a baoli under the light of
oil lamps .
• Tughlak took away the oil but lamps were lit by
water and baoli was completed .
• Chirag Dilli derives its name from this story.
• Another welknown Tughlak was the maveric
Mohammed Bin Tughlak ( 1351 AD)who tried and
failed in shifting his Sultanet HQ to Daultabad in
Maharashtra .
• Tughlak’s Delhi is generally Considered as the
fourth City of Mausoleum of Ghiasuddin Baoli at
Nizamuddin Delhi.
FEROZABAD – Feroze Tughlaq
• Firoz Shah ( 1351AD) was the next Sultan
( Tughlaq Dynasty)to make a new city at
Delhi .
• The present Cricket Stadium of Delhi
called Kotla Grounds area has many
stone edicts of his time.
• Top pictures are of his fort’s now
destroyed gate and his tomb at Firozabad
West Gate Lodhi Garden Area Hauz Khas.
now demolished.
• He carried the forty feet long stone pillar
of Ashoka’s time intact from Ambala and
installed it in the area .
• His Delhi is generally called the Fifth city
of Delhi .
• The last picture is of Lodhi Tomb another
landmark in Delhi in Lodhi Garden.
• Ashoka Pillar Kotla Lodhi Garden Area
SHERGARH – Sher Shah Suri
• Sher Sha Suri (1540-45) was a gifted General and
Founder of Sher Garh city in Delhi .
• Humayun , the son of Babar had a checkered
career .
• He lost battle to Sher Shah Suri, an Afghan and
fled to Iran.
• He regained his kingdom in the year Purana Quila
Sher Garh 1546 .
• He completed /remade the Purana Qila at Delhi .
• Excavations at Purana Qila .Some people call his
Delhi as Din Panah .
• Humayun tomb is an outstanding World heritage
building .
• It also has the headless corpse of Dara Shikoha
burried there Humayun Makbara, Humayun
Tomb.
SHAHJAHANABAD
• Before New Delhi was made Shahjahan
(1628-59) was the greatest builder who
made Red Fort and Jama Masjid .
• The main road in Chandini Chowk was a
canal.
• Lal Quila Ajmeri Gate Delhi had fourteen
gates out of which Turkman Gate,
Kashmiri Gate , Delhi Gate, Ajmeri Gate
and Nigam bodh gate have survived .
Shahjahanabad was the Kashmiri Gate
Jama Masjid seventh old city of Delhi.
 SHAHJAHANABAD / OLD DELHI

• Seventh planned city of Delhi.

• The Mughal emperors shifted their
base from Delhi to Agra
• Shahjahanabad was the city
with the colossal Red Fort and
its14 gates.
• The fort still stands along with the
historic architecture of the Jama
Masjid and Chandni Chowk.
• The old city was surrounded by a wall
enclosing approximately 1500acres,
with several gates.
• Nigambodh Gate- North/East, leading to historic \ Nigambodh ghat
on Yamua River.
• It was built on the north eastern side of the
Shahajahanabad.
• It is located on the Ring Road near the Yamuna
Bazaar.
• It derives its name Nigambodh Ghat from the
burial ground here.
• The etymology of Nigambodh is derived
from Sanskrit words ‘Nigam’ which means the
“Ved” and ‘bodh’ means “knowledge”, meaning
realization of knowledge.
• According to a folk legend, Lord Brahma (the
creator) took a bath in the Yamuna River at this
ghat to recover his lost memory and by this act
Brahma not only got back his memory but also
remembered the place he had kept his sacred
books.
• In the past, the gate was closer to the ghat and
nearer to the Salimgarh Fort.
• Kashmiri Gate-North
• The Kashmiri Gate is a gate located in
Delhi,
• it is the northern gate to the historic
walled city of Delhi.
• Built by Military Engineer Robert Smith in
1835, the gate is so named because it
used to start a road that led to Kashmir.
• Kashmiri Gate is one of the original 14
gates built into the wall to the north of the
city
• Mori Gate - North

• Mori Gate, located in the Civil Lines

area in north Delhi above the Red Fort,
could be reached via the Dufferin
Bridge.
• This walls within the Mori Gate area
were fortified in 1809 after an attack
on the city by Jaswant Rao Holkar.
• Kabuli gate -West
• Kabuli Gate or Khooni Darwaza literally
translated means “Bloody Gate”, a “morbid
sounding name”.
• It is an impressive double–storied structure.
• Its construction is credited to Sher Shah Suri's
reign from 1540-1545 (though the fort walls of
the Suri period have not been seen to extend
to this gate).
• It was built largely with grey stone but red
stones were also used in the frames of its
windows.
• Though not within the walls of the
Shahajahan's fort, it is located on the Mathura
road opposite to the Ferozshah Kotla near
Maulana Azad Medica Collage.
• At this gate, on September 21, 1857, during
the Indian Rebellion, three sons of the
last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar,
were executed by the British Officer,
Captain William Hudson.
• Lahori gate - West

• The Lahori gate of the Old Delhi city, now only

a bazaar square with small remnants at one
end, used to lead east along the Chandni
Chowk to the Lahore gate of the Red Fort.
• Inside the Lahori gate is the grain market.
• Outside the gate stands a mosque built by
Sirhindi Begum, wife of Shah Jahan, whom he
married after the death Arjumand Banu
Begum, Mumtaz Mahal.
• This Lahori Gate was also one of the last
points captured during the siege of 1857.
• Ajmeri Gate-South East
• Ajmeri Gate, built in 1644, to the south–west of
Shahjahanabad with a square plan, has high
arched openings.
• The Sepoy Mutiny or the first war of Indian
Independence in 1857 was fought at this venue
also.
• The road, through this gate, leads to the city
of Ajmer in Rajasthan, and hence its name. A
lovely park surrounds the gate.
• The Madrasa (Islamic school of learning) built by
Nawab Ghaziuddin Bahadur father of the first
Nizam of Hyderabad in 1811, west of the college
lies the tomb of the founder and a mosque In the
following years, it converted to Delhi college .
• Turkman Gate - South East

• Turkman Gate, located to the southern edge

of Shahajahanabad is named after the Sufi
Saint Hazrat Shah Turkman Bayabani.
• His tomb dated to 1240, before building of
Shahjahanabad, is located to the east of the
gate.
• It is approached from the Jawahar Lal Nehru
Road, the old Circular Road, in the vicinity of
the Ramlila Ground.
• It has a square plan with high arched
openings.
• The tomb of Razia Sultan and Kali Masjid or
Kalan Masjid are located in close proximity of
the gate.
• The gate was the scene of Turkman gate
demolition and rioting in 1976.
• Delhi Gate - South

• The gate links the New Delhi city with the old
walled city of Delhi.
• It stands in the middle of the road, at the end
of Netaji Subhash Chandra Road (or Netaji
Subhash Marg), at the edge of the Daryaganj.
• The Gate was built by Emperor Shah Jahan in
1638 as part of the rubble–built high fort walls
that encircled the Shahajahanabad, the
seventh city of Delhi.
• The emperor used this gate to go to the Jama
Masaid for prayer.
• The gate is similar in design and architecture
to the northern gate of the walled city,
the Kashmiri Gate (1853).
• It was built in sandstone and is an impressive
and large structure.
• Near the gate entry, two stone carvings of
elephants were erected.
Planning of Shahjahanabad
• The city was planned according to
hindu planning principles of
shilpashastra from vastushastra.
• The site was placed on a high land
as in the shastra and was
karmukha or bow shaped

• The arm of the archer was Chandni

Chowk.
• The junction of the two main axes
is the most auspicious point in the
whole region and was therefore the
red fort.
The designed infrastructure of Shahjahanabad comprised
• The fort
• The Friday mosque.
• The other major mosques, including the corresponding waqf properties.
• The two main a wide street in town or city.
• The bazaars around the Friday mosque.
• The elaborate system of water channels.
• The major gardens and the city wall.
• The arrangement of these planned elements was influenced by certain site
features, which precluded absolute geometry.
Major Streets
• The streets in Mughal capital were usually narrow and crooked.
• the major streets in the new capital were designed as wide
and straight.
• The east-west street called Chandni Chowk connected the
Lahori Darwaza of the fort
• It ran in a straight line forming a wide
wide street with broad vista..
• The Fort was visible from any place
on the street.
• This perspective view marked a new
concept of town planning for the
Mughal capital.
• Another main street the Faiz Bazaar or
Akkarabadi Bazaar, was also wide and straight.
• It had a north-south axis and connected
Delhi gate of the fort with the city walls
Delhi gate and is about 1km in length.
• These major two streets developed as
processional routes, as well as
commercial arteries.
Five Main Streets
• The basic network of the five main streets extended
from Chandni Chowk and Faiz Bazaar to other gates and
to different part of the walled city.
• The streets were built as the spines of major activities
and developed as commercial thorough affairs.
• They connected the Ajmeri Darwaza with the
JamiMasjid and Turkman and Lahori Darwazas.
• The other streets were less significant and were
mainly built as access roads to the residential
areas.
MAHALLA / KATRA
• There was a tendency of the cities' population to settle by ethnic affiliations and
to live in the same neighborhoods.
• The urban community and the Mughal capital was formed by such
districts or wards, known as mahallas and katras.
• These homogeneous units also define cultural as well as socio-economic
activities.
• There were 36 mahallas in the walled city. Each katra had an enclosed space
created between residential and commercial buildings having entry to a katra
made through a gate.
• These courtyards were environmentally sound and acted as main ventilation shafts
in a hot and arid climate.
CITY WALLS
• The layout o the city walls was based on a geometrical planning;
• A polygonal plan with gateways. The four main gates were Delhi Darwaza on
south, the Ajmeri Darwaza on the south-west, the Lahori Darwaza on the west
and the Kashmiri Darwaza on the north.
• These important gates were positioned according to the basic network of the city,
The Biggest Mosque In India
• Near the Red Fort about 500m
away is the Jama masjid, the
biggest mosque in India.
• It was begun by Shah Jahan in
1650 and completed six years
later and the whole cost about
a million rupees.
• It is hard to imagine a building
more suited to evoking the awe
of the majesty of Allah in man.
• The mosque stands on a rocky
elevation.
• Its huge gateway looks down
at you like fastidious
connoisseur from an immense
platform which has steps that
lead up to it.
CHANDNI CHOWK
• Built in 17th century by the Muslim emperor
Shah Jahan.
• The favourite daughter of Shahjahan, Jahanara
laid the foundation of today Chandni Chowk.
• which is the largest trading centre of North
India.
• Market was once divided by canals to reflect
moonlight hence the name.
• One of the oldest and busiest markets in Old
Delhi has around 2500 shops.
• Chandni Chowk runs through the
middle of the walled city, from the
Lahori Darwaza (Lahore Gate) of the
Red Fort to Fatehpuri Masjid.
• Situated opposite the Red Fort, the
bazaar has several galis (lanes).
Each of these galis represent a
specialty of this market
• Located in Central Delhi.
RED FORT
• The Red sandstone of the massive Red Fort rise 33 metres above the clamour of Old
Delhi as a reminder of the magnificent power and pomp of the Mughal emperors.
• The walls, built in 1638, were designed to keep out invaders, now they mainly keep out
the noise and confusion of the day.
 THANK YOU

References
• Delhi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia_files
• www.censusindia.gov.in
• online pdf -CT.Lakshmanan B.Arch., M.C.P. Asst. Prof. (SG) SRM School of Architecture
• Delhi - 100 years as the Capital". The Hindu.
• "History of Delhi District". The Imperial Gazetteer of India, Vol. 11. Oxford at Clarendon Press. 1909. p. 225.
• Kapoor, Pramod; Malvika Singh; Rudrangshu Mukherjee (2009). New Delhi: Making of a Capital. Lustre
Press. ISBN 978-81-7436-574-3.
• Delhi (1938), a documentary by BFI archives
• http://www.dawn.com/weekly/dmag/archive/080817/dmag9.htm PAST PRESENT: Shahjahanabad Before
1857 By Mubarak Ali
OLD DELHI – MSU MURP-I | PARTH SADARIA