Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/59

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DELHI
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ance, and forms a marked contrast to the south-west quarter of the town, which is densely occupied by the shops and dwellings of the native population. The buildings in the native town are chiefly of brick, well-built and substantial. The smaller streets are narrow and tortuous, and in many cases end in nils de sac. On the other hand, no city in India has finer streets than the main thoroughfares of Delhi, ten in number, thoroughly drained, metalled, and lighted. The principal thorough fare, the Chandni Chauk, or Street of Silver, leads east wards from the fort to the Lahore gate, and is three- quarters of a mile long by 74 feet broad. Throughout the greater part of its length, a double row of nim and pipdl trees runs down its centre on both sides of a raised path, which has taken the place of the masonry aqueduct that in former days conducted water from the canal into the palace. A little to the south of the Chandni Chauk is the Jama. Masjid, or great mosque, standing out boldly from a small rocky rising ground. Begun by Shah Jahan in the fourth year of his reign, and completed in the tenth, it still remains one of the finest buildings of its kind in India. Its front court-yard, 450 feet square, and sur rounded by a cloister open on both sides, is paved with granite inlaid with marble, and commands a view of the whole city. The mosque itself, a splendid structure form ing an oblong 261 feet in length, is approached by a magnificent flight of stone steps. Three domes of white marble rise from its roof, with two tall and graceful minarets at the corners in front. The interior of the mosque is paved throughout with white marble, and the walls and roof are lined with the same material. Two other mosques in Delhi deserve a passing notice, the Kala. Masjid, or black mosque, so called from the dark colour given to it by time, and supposed to have been built by one of the early Afghan sovereigns, and the mosque of Roshan-ud-daula. Among the more modern buildings of Delhi may be mentioned the Government College, founded in 1792, the Residency, and the Protestant church, built at a cost 10,000, by Colonel Skinner, an officer well- known in the history of the East India Company. About half-way down the Chdndni Chauk is a high clock-tower, with the institute and museum opposite. Behind the Chandni Chauk, to the north, lie the Queen s Gardens ; beyond them the " city lines " stretch away as far as the well-known rocky ridge, about a mile outside the town. From the summit of this ridge the view of the station and city is very picturesque. To the west and north-west, con siderable suburbs cluster beyond the walls, containing the tombs of the imperial family. That of Humayun, the second of the Mughul dynasty, is a noble building of granite inlaid with marble. It lies about two miles from the city, amid a large garden of terraces and fountains, the whole surrounded by an embattled wall, with towers and four gateways. In the centre stands a platform about 20 feet high by 200 feet square, supported by cloisters, and ascended by four great flights of granite steps. Above, rises the Mausoleum, also a square, with a great dome of white marble in the centre. About a mile to the westward is another burying-ground, or collection of tombs and small mosques, some of them very beautiful. The most remark able is perhaps the little chapel in honour of a celebrated Mussulman saint, Nizdm-ud-din, near whose shrine the members of the late imperial family, up to the time of the mutiny, lie buried, each in his own little inclosure, sur rounded by very elegant lattice-work of white marble. The Kutab Minar, or Pillar, is situated about nine miles south of the city. The palaces of the nobles, which formerly gave an air of grandeur to the city, have for the most part disappeared. Their sites are occupied by structures of less pretension, but still of some elegance of architectural design. The city is now amply supplied with water ; and much attention has of late been paid to its cleanliness and its sanitary condition generally. The principal local institution was, until 187 7, the Delhi College, founded in 1792. It was at first exclusively an Oriental school, supported by the voluntary contributions of Mahometan gentlemen, and managed by a committee of the subscribers. In 1829 an English department was added to it; and in 1855 the institution was placed under the control of the Educational Department. In the mutiny of 1857 the old college was plundered of a very valuable Oriental library, and the building completely destroyed. A new college was founded in 1858, and was affiliated to the university of Calcutta in 1864. The old college attained to great celebrity as an educational institution, and produced many excellent scholars. Under orders of the Government of the Punjab (February 1877), the collegiate staff of teachers was to be withdrawn, in order to concentrate the grant available for higher-class education upon the central and more useful institution at Lahore, the present capital of the province. The population of Delhi in 1853 was returned at 152,424, viz., 76,390 Hindus and 76,034 Mahometans. In 1868, the census showed that since the Mutiny the Mahometan population had greatly diminished, while on the other hand the Hindus had considerably increased. In that year, the population was ascer tained to be made up as follows : Hindus, 85,087 (males 46,541 and females 38,546) ; Mahometans, 61,720 (males 32,361 and females 29,359); Sikhs, 357 males 267 and females 90); other denominations, 7253 (males 4177 and females 3076): total of all religions, 154,417 (males 83,346 and females 71,071). The Delhi municipality, which also embraces the suburbs, contains a population of 184,840. The total income (mainly derived from octroi duties) in 1871-72 amounted to 25,610, or an average of 2s. 9|d. per head.

History.—From the earliest period .of Indian history, Delhi or its immediate neighbourhood has been the site of a capital city. Within the circuit of a very few miles from modern Delhi, city after city has risen upon the ruins of its predecessors, and the debris of ancient build ings is now estimated to cover an area of 45 square miles. The first of these fallen capitals, Indraprastha, is supposed to date from the 15th century B.C., when the Aryan colonists of India were beginning to feel their way down the Jumna. The Sanskrit epic, the Mahdbhdrata, relates how the city was founded by Yudhisthira and his brothers, the five Pandavas. It lay upon the banks of the Jumna, near Humayun s tomb, about two miles south of the modern city; and the Migambod ghat, near the old Calcutta gate of Delhi, is believed to be its one surviving relic. A list of monarchs brings the history of Indraprastha down to the middle of the 1st century B.C., when the name of Dilli, or Delhi, is first met with. By this time the city had spread or been removed some miles to the south, as far as the site now occupied by the Kutab Minar. Another blank of several centuries occurs until the 3d or 4th century A.D. To this latter period belongs the carved iron pillar near Delhi, one of the most curious monuments in India. It consists of a solid shaft of wrought iron, upwards of 16 inches in diameter, and more than 50 feet in length, of which 22 feet are above ground. The pillar bears a Sanskrit in scription in six lines, recordingthe history of oneRajd Dhava, who " obtained by his own arm an undivided sovereignty on the earth for a long period." Delhi next makes its appear ance in history at the time of the foundation of the Tomara or Tuar dynasty by Anang Pal in 736 A.D. This ruler is said to have restored the city, and during his dynasty the capital alternated between Delhi and Kanauj. About 1151 A.D. the Tomdra dynasty was overthrown by Visala Deva, the Chohan king of Ajmir, but a marriage of the daughter of the vanquished monarch to the son of the conqueror

united the two families. The son of this union, the famous