Banda Singh Bahadur
Banda Singh Bahadur, was a Sikh military commander who established a Sikh state with capital at Lohgarh. At age 15 he left home to become an ascetic, was given the name ‘’Madho Das’’, he established a monastery at Nānded, on the bank of the river Godāvarī, where in September 1708 he was visited by, became a disciple of, Guru Gobind Singh, who gave him the new name of Banda Singh Bahadur after initiating him into the Khalsa. Armed with the blessing and authority of Guru Gobind Singh, he came to Khanda in Sonipat and assembled a fighting force and led the struggle against the Mughal Empire. Guru Gobind Singh appointed five Sikhs to assist him, his first major action was the sacking of the Mughal provincial capital, Samana, in November 1709. After establishing his authority in Punjab, Banda Singh Bahadur abolished the zamindari system, granted property rights to the tillers of the land, he was captured by the Mughals and tortured to death in 1715-1716. Banda Singh was born at Rajouri. According to Hakim Rai's Ahwāl-i-Lachhmaṇ Dās urf Bandā Sāhib, his father Ram Dev was a farmer belonging to the Sodhi sub-caste of the Khatris.
After a meeting with Guru Gobind Singh on 3 September 1708, he became a Sikh. The Guru Gobind ordered him to go to Khanda and fight the Mughals with the help of the Sikh army in Battle of Sonipat. In 1709 he defeated Mughals in the Battle of Samana and captured the Mughal city of Samana, killing about 10,000 Mohammedans. Samana minted coins. With this treasury the Sikhs became financially stable; the Sikhs soon took over Sadhora. The Sikhs captured the Cis-Sutlej areas of Punjab, including Malerkotla and Nahan. On 12 May 1710 in the Battle of Chappar Chiri the Sikhs killed Wazir Khan, the Governor of Sirhind and Dewan Suchanand, who were responsible for the martyrdom of the two youngest sons of Guru Gobind Singh. Two days the Sikhs captured Sirhind. Banda Singh was now in control of territory from the Sutlej to the Yamuna and ordered that ownership of the land be given to the farmers, to let them live in dignity and self-respect. Banda Singh Bahadur developed the village of Mukhlisgarh, made it his capital.
He renamed it to Lohgarh where he issued his own mint. The coin described Lohgarh: "Struck in the City of Peace, illustrating the beauty of civic life, the ornament of the blessed throne", he established a state in Punjab for half a year. Banda Singh sent Sikhs to the Uttar Pradesh and Sikhs took over Saharanpur, Jalalabad and other nearby areas, bringing relief to the repressed population. In the regions of Jalandhar and Amritsar, the Sikhs started fighting for the rights of the people. Banda Singh Bahadur captured Rahon after defeating Mughals in the Battle of Rahon. Sikhs used their newly established power to remove corrupt officials and replace them with honest ones. Banda Singh Bahadur is known to have halted the Zamindari system in the time he was active and gave the farmers proprietorship of their own land, it seems that all classes of government officers were addicted to extortion and corruption and the whole system of regulatory and order was subverted. Local tradition recalls that the people from the neighborhood of Sadaura came to Banda Singh complaining of the iniquities practices by their land lords.
Banda Singh ordered Baj Singh to open fire on them. The people were astonished at the strange reply to their representation, asked him what he meant, he told them that they deserved no better treatment when being thousands in number they still allowed themselves to be cowed down by a handful of Zamindars. He defeated the Shaikhs in the Battle of Sadhaura; the rule of the Sikhs over the entire Punjab east of Lahore obstructed the communication between Delhi and Lahore, the capital of Punjab, this worried Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah He gave up his plan to subdue rebels in Rajasthan and marched towards Punjab. The entire Imperial force was organized to kill Banda Singh Bahadur. All the generals were directed to join the Emperor's army. To ensure that there were no Sikh agents in the army camps, an order was issued on 29 August 1710 to all Hindus to shave off their beards. Banda Singh was in Uttar Pradesh when the Moghal army under the orders of Munim Khan marched to Sirhind and before the return of Banda Singh, they had taken Sirhind and the areas around it.
The Sikhs therefore moved to Lohgarh for their final battle. The Sikhs defeated the army but reinforcements were called and they laid siege on the fort with 60,000 troops. Gulab Singh seated himself in his place. Banda Singh went to a secret place in the hills and Chamba forests; the failure of the army to kill or catch Banda Singh shocked Emperor, Bahadur Shah and On 10 December 1710 he ordered that wherever a Sikh was found, he should be murdered. The Emperor became mentally disturbed and died on 18 February 1712. Banda Singh Bahadur wrote Hukamnamas to the Sikhs to join him at once. In 1712, the Sikhs gathered near Kiratpur Sahib and defeated Raja Ajmer Chand, responsible for organizing all the Hill Rajas against Guru Gobind Singh and instigating battles with him. After Bhim Chand's dead the other Hill Rajas accepted their subordinate status and paid revenues to Banda Singh. While Bahadur Shah's four sons were killing themselves for the throne of the Mughal Emperor, Banda Singh Bahadur recaptured Sadhaura and Lohgarh.
Farrukh Siyar, the next Moghal Emperor, appointed Abdus Samad Khan as the governor of Lahore and Zakaria Khan, Abdus Samad Khan's son, the Faujdar of Jammu. In 1713 the
India
India known as the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh largest country by area and with more than 1.3 billion people, it is the second most populous country as well as the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives, while its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia; the Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE. In the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, Buddhism and Jainism arose. Early political consolidations took place under the Gupta empires. In the medieval era, Zoroastrianism and Islam arrived, Sikhism emerged, all adding to the region's diverse culture.
Much of the north fell to the Delhi Sultanate. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal Empire. In the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, in the mid-19th under British Crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance and led to India's independence in 1947. In 2017, the Indian economy was the world's sixth largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the fastest-growing major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption and inadequate public healthcare. A nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the second largest standing army in the world and ranks fifth in military expenditure among nations. India is a federal republic governed under a parliamentary system and consists of 29 states and 7 union territories.
A pluralistic and multi-ethnic society, it is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindush, equivalent to the Sanskrit word Sindhu, the historical local appellation for the Indus River; the ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as "The people of the Indus". The geographical term Bharat, recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations, it is a modernisation of the historical name Bharatavarsha, which traditionally referred to the Indian subcontinent and gained increasing currency from the mid-19th century as a native name for India. Hindustan is a Middle Persian name for India, it was introduced into India by the Mughals and used since then. Its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety; the name may refer to either the northern part of India or the entire country.
The earliest known human remains in South Asia date to about 30,000 years ago. Nearly contemporaneous human rock art sites have been found in many parts of the Indian subcontinent, including at the Bhimbetka rock shelters in Madhya Pradesh. After 6500 BCE, evidence for domestication of food crops and animals, construction of permanent structures, storage of agricultural surplus, appeared in Mehrgarh and other sites in what is now Balochistan; these developed into the Indus Valley Civilisation, the first urban culture in South Asia, which flourished during 2500–1900 BCE in what is now Pakistan and western India. Centred around cities such as Mohenjo-daro, Harappa and Kalibangan, relying on varied forms of subsistence, the civilization engaged robustly in crafts production and wide-ranging trade. During the period 2000–500 BCE, many regions of the subcontinent transitioned from the Chalcolithic cultures to the Iron Age ones; the Vedas, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism, were composed during this period, historians have analysed these to posit a Vedic culture in the Punjab region and the upper Gangetic Plain.
Most historians consider this period to have encompassed several waves of Indo-Aryan migration into the subcontinent from the north-west. The caste system, which created a hierarchy of priests and free peasants, but which excluded indigenous peoples by labeling their occupations impure, arose during this period. On the Deccan Plateau, archaeological evidence from this period suggests the existence of a chiefdom stage of political organisation. In South India, a progression to sedentary life is indicated by the large number of megalithic monuments dating from this period, as well as by nearby traces of agriculture, irrigation tanks, craft traditions. In the late Vedic period, around the 6th century BCE, the small states and chiefdoms of the Ganges Plain and the north-western regions had consolidated into 16 major oligarchies and monarchies that were known as the mahajanapadas; the emerging urbanisation gave rise to non-Vedic religious movements, two of which became independent religions. Jainism came into prominence during the life of Mahavira.
Buddhism, based on the teachings of Gautama Buddha, attracted followers from all social classes excepting the middle
Aam Khas Bagh
Aam Khas Bagh, today is remains of a highway-inn constructed for the use of royalty as well as common people. It was divided into the Khas for private use by the Royalty; this Royal inn was built by Akbar and planned by Mughal architect Hafiz Rakhna. It was rebuilt by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan along the Mughal military road between Delhi and Lahore, The Royal couple used to stay here in the old building complex, while going to and coming back from Lahore. Princess nazar on married kritik here. On, some additions were made to this monument by Jahangir; the complex was famous for a perfect air-conditioning system called Sarad Khana. The Sheesh Mahal of the Daulat-Khana-e-Khas, the hamam and the tank had unique methods of heating water; the palace compound had a set of fountains. Water for the fountains was drawn from a huge well nearby and circulated through underground conduits. A beautiful garden and the Nursery is being maintained, it is a Mugal type Garden. The old complex, which has archaeological value, is being maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India.
The area was maintained till a few years ago. Buildings in worst condition include Sard Khana and Shahi Hamaam. Lack of upkeep has ruined these buildings; the complex has an orchard spread over 11 acres of land. The orchard has mango and guava plantations and some trees are more than 70 years old; the following monuments are situated in the vicinity of Aam Khas Bagh: Sard Khana - This monument was built by Emperor Jahangir. This is an air conditioned chamber of that time; the water was pulled out through large pulleys from the adjoining well and was passed through water channels running through the walls of this building and was used for fountains and waterfalls. Sheesh Mahal - This beautiful building was known as Daulat-Khana-E-Khas and was called Sheesh Mahal; this was built by the orders of Emperor Jahangir. There have been some subsequent alterations to the original building; the domes of this monument were decorated with glazed tiles. Hamam - This monument was constructed by the orders of Emperor Jahangir.
In this, water was taken through underground terracotta channels and a unique method of heating the water was adopted. Tank - This tank was got prepared by orders of Emperor Jahangir. There was a Mehtabi-Chabutra in the centre. On the east and west sides of this tank quarters for Mughal Employees were built. Daulat Khana-E-Khas- This double storeyed monument was got built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan as his private residence; this must have been the most beautiful building of those time. All the rooms and main walls of this building were decorated with designs; the central hall measured eastern walls were having two tall minarets. On the northern side there were many tanks and fountains which added to the grandeur of this building. During the famous Shaheedi Jor Mela at Fatehgarh Sahib, the light and sound programme regarding the history of Sirhind and the martyrdom of younger sons of Guru Gobind Singh in the form of Play - Sirhind Di Deewar is shown to the visitors at night in the Aam Khas Bagh.
Gurdwara Fatehgarh Sahib Jahaz Haveli
Calligraphy
Calligraphy is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a broad tip instrument, brush, or other writing instruments. A contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive and skillful manner". Modern calligraphy ranges from functional inscriptions and designs to fine-art pieces where the letters may or may not be readable. Classical calligraphy differs from typography and non-classical hand-lettering, though a calligrapher may practice both. Calligraphy continues to flourish in the forms of wedding invitations and event invitations, font design and typography, original hand-lettered logo design, religious art, graphic design and commissioned calligraphic art, cut stone inscriptions, memorial documents, it is used for props and moving images for film and television, for testimonials and death certificates and other written works. The principal tools for a calligrapher are the brush. Calligraphy pens round, or pointed.
For some decorative purposes, multi-nibbed pens—steel brushes—can be used. However, works have been created with felt-tip and ballpoint pens, although these works do not employ angled lines. There are some styles such as Gothic script, that require a stub nib pen. Writing ink is water-based and is much less viscous than the oil-based inks used in printing. High quality paper, which has good consistency of absorption, enables cleaner lines, although parchment or vellum is used, as a knife can be used to erase imperfections and a light-box is not needed to allow lines to pass through it. Light boxes and templates are used to achieve straight lines without pencil markings detracting from the work. Ruled paper, either for a light box or direct use, is most ruled every quarter or half inch, although inch spaces are used; this is the case with litterea unciales, college-ruled paper acts as a guideline well. Common calligraphy pens and brushes are: Quill Dip pen Ink brush Qalam Fountain pen Western calligraphy is recognizable by the use of the Latin script.
The Latin alphabet appeared about 600 BC, in Rome, by the first century developed into Roman imperial capitals carved on stones, Rustic capitals painted on walls, Roman cursive for daily use. In the second and third centuries the uncial lettering style developed; as writing withdrew to monasteries, uncial script was found more suitable for copying the Bible and other religious texts. It was the monasteries which preserved calligraphic traditions during the fourth and fifth centuries, when the Roman Empire fell and Europe entered the Dark Ages. At the height of the Empire, its power reached as far as Great Britain; the Semi-uncial generated the small Anglo-Saxon. Each region developed its own standards following the main monastery of the region, which are cursive and hardly readable. Christian churches promoted the development of writing through the prolific copying of the Bible, the Breviary, other sacred texts. Two distinct styles of writing known as uncial and half-uncial developed from a variety of Roman bookhands.
The 7th–9th centuries in northern Europe were the heyday of Celtic illuminated manuscripts, such as the Book of Durrow, Lindisfarne Gospels and the Book of Kells. Charlemagne's devotion to improved scholarship resulted in the recruiting of "a crowd of scribes", according to Alcuin, the Abbot of York. Alcuin developed the style known as the Carolingian minuscule; the first manuscript in this hand was the Godescalc Evangelistary —a Gospel book written by the scribe Godescalc. Carolingian remains the one progenitor hand. In the eleventh century, the Caroline evolved into the Gothic script, more compact and made it possible to fit more text on a page; the Gothic calligraphy styles became dominant throughout Europe. In the 15th century, the rediscovery of old Carolingian texts encouraged the creation of the humanist minuscule or littera antiqua; the 17th century saw the Batarde script from France, the 18th century saw the English script spread across Europe and world through their books. In the mid-1600s French officials, flooded with documents written in various hands and varied levels of skill, complained that many such documents were beyond their ability to decipher.
The Office of the Financier thereupon restricted all legal documents to three hands, namely the Coulee, the Rhonde, a Speed Hand sometimes called the Bastarda. While there were many great French masters at the time, the most influential in proposing these hands was Louis Barbedor, who published Les Ecritures Financière Et Italienne Bastarde Dans Leur Naturel circa 1650. With the destruction of the Camera Apostolica during the sack of Rome, the capitol for writing masters moved to Southern France. By 1600, the Italic Cursiva began to be replaced by a technological refinement, the Italic Chancery Circumflessa, which in turn fathered the Rhonde and English Roundhand. In England and Banson popularized the Round Hand while Snell is noted for his reaction to them, warnings of restraint and proportionality. Still Edward Crocker began publishing his copybooks 40 years before the aforementioned. Sacred Western calligraphy has some special features
Municipal council
A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality such as a city council or a town council. In spite of enormous differences in populations, each of the communes of the French Republic possesses a mayor and a municipal council, which manage the commune from the mairie, with the same powers no matter the size of the commune and council; the one exception is the city of Paris, where the city police is in the hands of the central state, not in the hands of the mayor of Paris. This uniformity of status is a clear legacy of the French Revolution, which wanted to do away with the local idiosyncrasies and tremendous differences of status that existed in the kingdom of France; the size of a commune still matters, however, in two domains: French law determines the size of the municipal council according to the population of the commune. Lists of communes of France Commune List of fifteen largest French metropolitan areas by population Established as the Sanitary Board in 1883, the Municipal Council in Hong Kong Island and Kowloon provided municipal services to the covered regions in the British Hong Kong.
Partial elections were allowed in 1887, though enabling selected persons to vote for members of the Board. The Board was reconstituted in 1935 and hence renamed as Urban Council in the following year after the government had passed the Urban Council Ordinance. Democratisation had been implemented, allowing universal suffrage to happen throughout its development. Two years after the Transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong, the Council was disbanded in 1999 by the Chief Executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. All members of the council were elected through universal suffrage by the time of the dissolution; the counterpart of the Municipal Council serving the New Territories was the Regional Council established as the Provisional Regional Council in 1986. The functional select committees, district committees, sub-committees constituted the entire Regional Council. All members were elected from the constituencies and district boards. Both of the Municipal Councils in Hong Kong are now defunct.
See Nagar Palika for municipalities of India. The Municipal Council in Moldova is the governing body in five municipalities: Chișinău, Bălți, Tiraspol and Bendery; the Municipal Council serves as a consultative body with some powers of general policy determination. It is composed of a determined number of counsellors elected every four years, representing political parties and independent counsellors. Once elected, counsellors may form fractions inside of the Municipal Council. Last regional elections of local public administration held in Bălți in June 2007, brought to the power the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova, which holds 21 mandates, 11 mandates are held by representatives of other parties, 3 mandates by independents. There are two fractions in the Municipal Council: "Meleag" fraction; the Mayor of the municipality is elected for four years. In Bălți, Vasile Panciuc is the incumbent from 2001 and was re-elected twice: in 2003 during the anticipated elections, in 2007. In Chișinău, the last mayor elections had to be repeated three times, because of the low rate of participation.
As a result, Dorin Chirtoacă, won the last mayor elections in Chișinău. In the Netherlands the municipal council is the elected assembly of the municipality, it consists of between 45 members who are elected by the citizens once every four years. The council's main tasks are setting the city's policies and overseeing the execution of those policies by the municipality's executive board; the municipal council municipal board, is the highest governing body of the municipality in Norway. The municipal council sets the scope of municipal activity, takes major decisions, delegates responsibility; the council is led by a mayor s divided into an executive council and a number of committees, each responsible for a subsection of tasks. It is not uncommon for some members of the council to sit in the county councils too, but rare that they hold legislative or Government office, without leave of absence; the municipal council dates back to 1837 with the creation of the Formannskabsdistrikt. In cities the council is called a city council.
In the Republic of China, a municipal council represents a special municipality. Members of the councils are elected through municipal elections held every 4-5 years. Councils for the special municipalities in Taiwan are Taipei City Council, New Taipei City Council, Taichung City Council, Tainan City Council, Kaohsiung City Council and Taoyuan City Council. City council Town council
Grand Trunk Road
The Grand Trunk Road is one of Asia's oldest and longest major roads — founded around 3rd century BCE by the Mauryan Empire of ancient India. For more than two millennia, it has linked the South Asia with Central Asia, it runs from Chittagong through to Dhaka in Bangladesh across Northern India through Delhi, passing from Amritsar. From there, the road continues towards Lahore and Peshawar in Pakistan terminating in Kabul, Afghanistan; the route spanning the Grand Trunk road existed during the reign of Chandragupta Maurya, extending from the mouth of the Ganges to the north-western frontier of the Empire. The predecessor of the modern road was rebuilt by Sher Shah Suri, who renovated and extended the ancient Mauryan route in the 16th century; the road was upgraded in the British period between 1833 and 1860.coincides with current N1, N4 & N405, N507 and N6 in Bangladesh. Research indicates that the Grand Trunk road predated Buddha's birth and was called Uttara Path, road to the North. Salman Rashid attributes the Road's construction to Chandragupta Maurya.
During the time of the Maurya Empire in the 3rd century BCE, overland trade between India and several parts of Western Asia and the Hellenistic world went through the cities of the north-west Takshashila. Takshashila was well connected by roads with other parts of the Mauryan Empire; the Mauryas had maintained this ancient highway from Takshashila to Patliputra. Chandragupta Maurya had a whole army of officials overseeing the maintenance of this road as told by the Greek diplomat Megasthenes who spent fifteen years at the Mauryan court. Constructed in eight stages, this road is said to have connected the cities of Purushapura, Hastinapura, Prayag and Tamralipta, a distance of around Canton 2,600 kilometres. Sher Shah Suri, the medieval ruler of the Sur Empire, is credited with rebuilding the road in the 16th century, he laid out the road, referred to as Shah Rah e Azam. During his reign, caravanserais and mosques were built and trees were planted along the entire stretch on both sides of the road to provide shade to travelers.
Wells were dug along the western section. The Mughals extended the road further east to Chittagong and west to Kabul and referred to the road as Sadak e Azam and Badshahi Sadak. In the 1830s the East India Company started a programme of metalled road construction, for both commercial and administrative purposes; the Grand trunk road, from Calcutta, through Delhi, to Peshawar was rebuilt at a cost of £1000 / mile, a Public Works Department, the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee founded, to train and employ local surveyors and overseers, to perform the work, in future maintain it and other roads. Over the centuries, the road acted as one of the major trade routes in the region and facilitated both travel and postal communication; the Grand Trunk Road is still used for transportation in present-day India, where parts of the road have been widened and included in the national highway system, retaining the old name. GT Road is mentioned in a number of literary works including those of Rudyard Kipling.
Kipling described the road as: "Look! Look again! and chumars and tinkers, barbers and bunnias, pilgrims – and potters – all the world going and coming. It is to me as a river, and the Grand Trunk Road is a wonderful spectacle. It runs straight, bearing without crowding India's traffic for fifteen hundred miles – such a river of life as nowhere else exists in the world." The ensemble of historic sites along the road in India were submitted to the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2015, by the name Sites along the Uttarapath, Badshahi Sadak, Sadak-e-Azam, Grand Trunk Road. Travelling along the Grand Trunk Road, you can find a lot of significant heritage sites Aam Khas Bagh Phillaur Fort Kos Minar Ram Bagh Palace Mughal Serai,Doraha Moorish Mosque Pul Kanjari Mughal Bridge Sanghol cantonment church tower Akbar's Tomb Farooque, Abdul Khair Muhammad and Communications in Mughal India. Delhi: Idarah-i Adabiyat-i Delli. Weller, Anthony and Nights on the Grand Trunk Road: Calcutta to Khyber.
Marlowe & Company. Kipling, Kim. Considered one of Kipling's finest works, it is set along the Grand Trunk Road. Free e-texts are available, for instance here. Usha Masson Luther. Historical routes of north west Indian Subcontinent, Lahore to Delhi, 1550s–1850s A. D. Sagar Publications. Arden, Harvey. "Along the Grand Trunk Road". National Geographic. 177: 118–38. Mozammel, Md Muktadir Arif. "Grand Trunk Road". In Islam, Sirajul. Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. Tayler, Jeffrey. "India's Grand Trunk Road". The Atlantic Monthly. 284: 42–48. National Highway Authority of India National Highway Authority of Pakistan NPR: Along the Grand Trunk Road
Delhi
Delhi the National Capital Territory of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. It is bordered by Haryana by Uttar Pradesh to the east; the NCT covers an area of 1,484 square kilometres. According to the 2011 census, Delhi's city proper population was over 11 million, the second-highest in India after Mumbai, while the whole NCT's population was about 16.8 million. Delhi's urban area is now considered to extend beyond the NCT boundaries and include the neighboring satellite cities of Faridabad, Gurgaon and Noida in an area now called Central National Capital Region and had an estimated 2016 population of over 26 million people, making it the world's second-largest urban area according to United Nations; as of 2016, recent estimates of the metro economy of its urban area have ranked Delhi either the most or second-most productive metro area of India. Delhi is the second-wealthiest city in India after Mumbai, with a total private wealth of $450 billion and is home to 18 billionaires and 23,000 millionaires.
Delhi has been continuously inhabited since the 6th century BCE. Through most of its history, Delhi has served as a capital of various empires, it has been captured and rebuilt several times during the medieval period, modern Delhi is a cluster of a number of cities spread across the metropolitan region. A union territory, the political administration of the NCT of Delhi today more resembles that of a state of India, with its own legislature, high court and an executive council of ministers headed by a Chief Minister. New Delhi is jointly administered by the federal government of India and the local government of Delhi, serves as the capital of the nation as well as the NCT of Delhi. Delhi hosted the first and ninth Asian Games in 1951 and 1982 1983 NAM Summit, 2010 Men's Hockey World Cup, 2010 Commonwealth Games, 2012 BRICS Summit and was one of the major host cities of the 2011 Cricket World Cup. Delhi is the centre of the National Capital Region, a unique'interstate regional planning' area created by the National Capital Region Planning Board Act of 1985.
There are a number of legends associated with the origin of the name Delhi. One of them is derived from Dhillu or Dilu, a king who built a city at this location in 50 BCE and named it after himself. Another legend holds that the name of the city is based on the Hindi/Prakrit word dhili and that it was used by the Tomaras to refer to the city because the iron pillar of Delhi had a weak foundation and had to be moved; the coins in circulation in the region under the Tomaras were called dehliwal. According to the Bhavishya Purana, King Prithiviraja of Indraprastha built a new fort in the modern-day Purana Qila area for the convenience of all four castes in his kingdom, he ordered the construction of a gateway to the fort and named the fort dehali. Some historians believe that Dhilli or Dhillika is the original name for the city while others believe the name could be a corruption of the Hindustani words dehleez or dehali—both terms meaning'threshold' or'gateway'—and symbolic of the city as a gateway to the Gangetic Plain.
The people of Delhi are referred to as Dilliwalas. The city is referenced in various idioms of the Northern Indo-Aryan languages. Examples include: Abhi Dilli door hai or its Persian version, Hanuz Dehli dur ast meaning Delhi is still far away, generically said about a task or journey still far from completion. Dilli dilwalon ka shehr or Dilli Dilwalon ki meaning Delhi belongs to the large-hearted/daring. Aas-paas barse, Dilli pani tarse meaning it pours all around, while Delhi lies parched. An allusion to the sometimes semi-arid climate of Delhi, it idiomatically refers to situations of deprivation when one is surrounded by plenty; the area around Delhi was inhabited before the second millennium BCE and there is evidence of continuous inhabitation since at least the 6th century BCE. The city is believed to be the site of Indraprastha, the legendary capital of the Pandavas in the Indian epic Mahabharata. According to the Mahabharata, this land was a huge mass of forests called'Khandavaprastha', burnt down to build the city of Indraprastha.
The earliest architectural relics date back to the Maurya period. Remains of eight major cities have been discovered in Delhi; the first five cities were in the southern part of present-day Delhi. King Anang Pal of the Tomara dynasty founded the city of Lal Kot in 736 CE. Prithviraj Chauhan renamed it Qila Rai Pithora; the king Prithviraj Chauhan was defeated in 1192 by Muhammad Ghori, a Muslim invader from Afghanistan, who made a concerted effort to conquer northern India. By 1200, native Hindu resistance had begun to crumble, the Muslims were victorious; the newfound dominance of foreign Turkic Muslim dynasties in north India would last for the next five centuries. The slave general of Ghori, Qutb-ud-din Aibak, was given the responsibility of governing the conquered territories of India until Ghori returned to his capital, Ghor; when Ghori died without a heir in 1206 CE, his territories fractured, with various generals claiming sovereignty over different areas. Qutb-ud-din assumed control of Ghori's Indian possessions, laid the foundation of the Delhi Sultanate and the Mamluk dynasty.
He began construction of the Qutb Minar and Quwwat-al-Islam mosque, the earlie
India
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