Qila Rai Pithora
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Lal Kot ( lit. "Red Fort") or Qila Rai Pithora ( lit. "Rai Pithora's Fort") is a fortified complex in present-day Delhi, which includes the
Qutb Minar complex The Qutb Minar complex are monuments and buildings from the Delhi Sultanate at Mehrauli in Delhi, India. Construction of the Qutub Minar "victory tower" in the complex, named after the religious figure Sufi Saint Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki, ...
. It was constructed in the reign of Tomar king
Anangpal Tomar Anangpal II, popularly known as Anangpal Tomar, was a ruler from the Tomar Rajput dyansty. He is known to have established and populated Delhi in the 11th century. He is often confused with Anangpal I, the founder of Tomar Dynasty of Delhi, w ...
between c. 1052 - c.1060 CE. It is termed as the "First city of
Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
". Remains of the fort walls are scattered across South Delhi, visible in present Saket, Mehrauli around Qutb complex, Sanjay Van, Kishangarh and Vasant Kunj areas.


Association with Anangpal Tomar II - Lal Kot

Round bastions of Lal Kot The Lal Kot (as the Qila Rai Pithora was originally called) is believed to be constructed in the reign of Tomar king Anangpal II. He brought the iron pillar from
Saunkh Saunkh, often spelled as Sonkh, is a town and a Nagar Panchayat in Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh, India. Archaeology The site is well-known for archaeological excavations led by Herbert Härtel in 1969-70. Numerous artefacts recovered from ...
location (
Mathura Mathura () is a city and the administrative headquarters of Mathura district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is located approximately north of Agra, and south-east of Delhi; about from the town of Vrindavan, and from Govardhan. ...
) and got it fixed in Delhi in the year 1052 as evident from the inscriptions on it. By assuming the iron pillar as center, numerous palaces and temples were built and finally the fort Lal Kot was built around them. The construction of the Lal Kot finished in the year 1060. The circumference of the fort was more than 2 miles and the walls of the fort were 60 feet high and 30 feet thick. “Anangpal II was instrumental in populating
Indraprastha Indraprastha (lit. "Plain of Indra" or "City of Indra") is mentioned in ancient Indian literature as a city of the Kuru Kingdom. It was the capital of the kingdom led by the Pandavas mentioned in ''Mahabharata'' . Under the Pali form of its name ...
and giving it its present name, Delhi. The region was in ruins when he ascended the throne in the 11th century, it was he who built Lal Kot fort (Qila Rai Pithora) and Anangtal Baoli. The Tomar rule over the region is attested by multiple inscriptions and coins, and their ancestry can be traced to the
Pandavas The Pandavas (Sanskrit: पाण्डव, IAST: Pāṇḍava) refers to the five legendary brothers— Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva—who are the central characters of the Hindu epic ''Mahabharata''. They are acknowledg ...
(of the
Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuruk ...
)" said BR Mani, former joint director-general of the
Archaeological Survey of India The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is an Indian government agency that is responsible for archaeological research and the conservation and preservation of cultural historical monuments in the country. It was founded in 1861 by Alexande ...
(ASI). Lal Kot was Delhi’s original ‘red fort’. What we call Red Fort or Lal Qila today was originally called Qila-e-Mubarak built by
Mughal Emperor The Mughal emperors ( fa, , Pādishāhān) were the supreme heads of state of the Mughal Empire on the Indian subcontinent, mainly corresponding to the modern countries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The Mughal rulers styled t ...
Shah Jahan. A short inscription on the
Qutb Minar The Qutb Minar, also spelled Qutub Minar and Qutab Minar, is a minaret and "victory tower" that forms part of the Qutb complex, which lies at the site of Delhi’s oldest fortified city, Lal Kot, founded by the Tomar Rajputs. It is a UNESCO Worl ...
reads "Pirathi Nirapa", which some writers read as vernacular for "King Prithvi". Some coins, called "Dehliwalas" in the early sources of the
Delhi Sultanate The Delhi Sultanate was an Islamic empire based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent for 320 years (1206–1526).
, were issued by a series of kings which include the Tomara rulers and a king called "Prithipala". This King Prithvi or Prithipala is believed to be the 3rd last Tomar king of Delhi - Prithvipal Tomar. Due to his name being similar to the famous King Prithviraj Chauhan of that time, he has been completely overlapped in the history.
Hasan Nizami Hasan Nizami was a Persian language poet and historian, who lived in the 12th and 13th centuries. He migrated from Nishapur to Delhi in India, where he wrote ''Tajul-Ma'asir'', the first official history of the Delhi Sultanate. Early life Lit ...
, a Persian author who wrote Tajul-Ma'asir, the first official history of the Delhi Sultanate praised the Lal Kot as follows - "After settling the case of Ajmer, the conqueror ( Shahabuddin Ghori) came to Delhi, which was among the major cities of Hindus. When he came to Delhi, he saw a fortress (Lal Kot) which was so marvellous that there was no other fort of height and firmness equal to it in the whole world."


Association with Prithviraj Chauhan - Qila Rai Pithora

The term "Qila Rai Pithora" (Persian for "fort of king Prithviraj") was first used by the 16th-century Mughal court historian Abu'l-Fazl in his Ain-i-Akbari. The term is used to denote a fortified complex (including the Qutb Minar complex), where the early rulers of the Delhi Sultanate based themselves. The texts contemporary or near-contemporary to Prithviraj place him in Ajmer: these texts include Sanskrit-language works such as ''Prithviraja Vijaya'' and ''Kharatara-gachchha-pattavali'', as well as the Persian-language chronicles such as ''Taj al-Masir'' and ''Tabaqat-i Nasiri''. Later texts such as ''
Prithviraj Raso The ''Prithviraj Raso'' (IAST: Pṛthvīrāja Rāso) is a Braj language epic poem about the life of Prithviraj Chauhan (reign. c. 1177–1192 CE). It is attributed to Chand Bardai, who according to the text, was a court poet of the king. Th ...
'' and ''Ain-i-Akbari'' associate him with Delhi in order to present him as an important political figure, because when these texts were written, Delhi had become an important political centre, while Ajmer's political importance had declined. Although there is no doubt that some of the structures at the site were built before the
Delhi Sultanate The Delhi Sultanate was an Islamic empire based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent for 320 years (1206–1526).
period, there is no evidence connecting the site to Prithviraj or any other Chahamana ruler. There are no existing records of Prithviraj being crowned in Delhi or even visiting Delhi. As late as in the early 21st century, modern scholars have used the term "Qila Rai Pithora" to denote Delhi's old citadel while referring to the older Persian-language chronicles, although these chronicles themselves do not use the term, instead calling the site simply "Delhi". Prithviraj's uncle
Vigraharaja IV Vigraharāja IV (r. c. 1150–1164 CE), also known as Visaladeva, was a king from the Chauhan (Chahamana) dynasty in north-western India. He turned the Chahamana kingdom into an empire by subduing the neighbouring kingdoms of Chaulukya, Naddu ...
appears to have brought Delhi under Chahamana suzerainty, and Prithviraj may have been an overlord of the contemporary ruler of Delhi. However, there is no concrete evidence that Prithviraj himself lived in Delhi or even visited that city. A short inscription on the
Qutb Minar The Qutb Minar, also spelled Qutub Minar and Qutab Minar, is a minaret and "victory tower" that forms part of the Qutb complex, which lies at the site of Delhi’s oldest fortified city, Lal Kot, founded by the Tomar Rajputs. It is a UNESCO Worl ...
reads ''Pirathi Nirapa'', which some writers read as vernacular for "King Prithvi", but this inscription is undated and its reading is uncertain, thus rendering it flimsy evidence. Some coins, called "Dehliwalas" in the early sources of the Dehli Sultanate, were issued by a series of kings which include the Tomara rulers and a king called "Prithipala". Even if "Prithipala" is assumed to be a name of Prithviraj (although some scholars believe him to be a distinct Tomara king), it is possible that Prithviraja's coins were called "Delhiwalas" not because they were minted in Delhi, but because they were used in Delhi after the city became a major Ghurid garrison.


Other Theories

Gateway
Alexander Cunningham Major General Sir Alexander Cunningham (23 January 1814 – 28 November 1893) was a British Army engineer with the Bengal Engineer Group who later took an interest in the history and archaeology of India. In 1861, he was appointed to the newly ...
's classified the site into older ("Lal Kot") and newer ("Qila Rai Pithora") parts attributed to the Tomaras and the Chahamanas respectively, but later archaeological excavations have cast doubt on this classification. Carr Stephen (1876) considered "Lal Kot" only a palace, and used the name "Qila Rai Pithora" to describe the pre-Sultanate fortification at the site. B. R. Mani (1997) referred to the site as "Lal Kot", using the term "Qila Rai Pithora" to describe a fortification wall ''possibly'' built by the Chahamanas. Catherine B. Asher (2000) describes Qila Rai Pithora as Lal Kot enlarged with rubble walls and ramparts. She theorizes that Qila Rai Pithora served as a city, while Lal Kot remained the citadel. Qila Rai Pithora, which was twice as large as the older citadel, had more massive and higher walls, and the combined fort extended to six and a half km. Asher states that after the Ghurid conquest of the Chahamana kingdom in 1192 CE, the Ghurid governor
Qutb al-Din Aibak Qutb ud-Din Aibak ( fa, قطب‌الدین ایبک), (1150 – 14 November 1210) was a Turkic general of the Ghurid king Muhammad Ghori. He was in charge of the Ghurid territories in northern India, and after Muhammad Ghori's assassination in ...
occupied Qila Rai Pithora, and renamed it to "Dilhi" (modern Delhi), reviving the site's older name. However, Cynthia Talbot (2015) notes that the term "Qila Rai Pithora" first appears in the 16th-century text ''
Ain-i-Akbari The ''Ain-i-Akbari'' ( fa, ) or the "Administration of Akbar", is a 16th-century detailed document recording the administration of the Mughal Empire under Emperor Akbar, written by his court historian, Abu'l Fazl in the Persian language. It for ...
'', and the older texts use the term "Dehli" to describe the site. Aibak and his successors did not extend or change the fort structure.


See also

* Anangpal Tomar II *
Prithviraj Chauhan Prithviraja III (IAST: Pṛthvī-rāja; reign. – 1192 CE), popularly known as Prithviraj Chauhan or Rai Pithora, was a king from the Chauhan (Chahamana) dynasty who ruled the territory of Sapadalaksha, with his capital at Ajmer in present- ...
*
History of Delhi Delhi has a long history, and has been an important political centre of India as the capital of several empires. Earliest coverage of Delhi's history is in the onset of the Tomar's kingdom in the 8th century. It is considered to be a city bui ...


References


Bibliography

* * {{Delhi landmarks Forts in Delhi Buildings and structures completed in the 12th century 12th-century establishments in India Archaeological monuments in Delhi Rajput architecture Archaeological sites in Delhi Mehrauli Monuments of National Importance in Delhi