Delhi in Moghal Times
Jewellers' Bazar to the old Idgah, and from the "Chittli" tomb (near the Jama Masjid) to the Mithai Bridge In the Teliwara Mandi, slaughter and fire and pillage raged in a most barbarous manner, from eight in the morning until three in the afternoon. Then Mahomed Shah sent an envoy to make personal intercession, and the slaughter was stopped, after over a hundred thousand people had been killed, many of whom were perfectly innocent men, women, and children. On the 13th a second, but smaller, massacre succeeded a second riot, and the work of clearing the dead bodies, piled in heaps in the
streets, took several days. For many years afterwards the quarter near the Golden Mosque remained almost deserted, so terrible was the
memory of this event, which is commemorated by the name, " Khuni Darwaza," given to the gate near which the massacre commenced.
Many days were spent in settling the details of the ransom to be exacted from the city, four crores of rupees (four millions sterling) being demanded. Mahomed Shah was reinstated and advised to beware of the Nizam, and a marriage took place between the son of Nadir Shah and a great-granddaughter of Aurangzeb, the rejoicings at which must have been somewhat forced. At length, on the 5th of May, Nadir Shah left Delhi235
