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Enjoying the privilege of a
being a capital of diverse dynasties, Delhi, has evolved as a museum
showcasing the royalty of the ruling elite's and their monumental
heritage.
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India -
Delhi - Indraprashta
Indraprashta
¤ Legend Says Pandavas Created Indraprastha
The
first city of Delhi was founded by the legendary Pandavas of the
Mahabharata
around 1400BC. It was called Indraprastha.
The Mahabharata isn’t all that legendary. of course it might
have been trimmed and embellished over the centuries, but the
essential story reflects the very real political unrest prevailing at
that time in the areas of northern and central India. According to the
Anguttara Nikaya, the Buddhist text, at the time of the Buddha a great
battle of supremacy was happening between the existing states (known
as mahajanapadas): Anga, Assaka (Asmaka), Avanti, Chedi, Gandhara,
Kasi, Kosala, Kuru, Kamboja, Magadha, Matsya, Malla, Panchala,
Surasena, Vajji and Vamsa (Vatsa). All of them were of varying size
and strength; most were either conquered or swallowed up by the bigger
fishes and the eventual survivors were Avanti, Kosala, Magadha and
Vatsya (Vatsa with its moons). Since many of the characters of the
Mahabharata echo the dynastic names and geographical locations of
these mahajanapadas one would be greatly tempted to conclude that a
case might be made for the theory that the great epic records actual
events.
¤ The Controversy In Inheriting The Throne
Anyhow, the problem, as stated in the
Mahabharata,
arose out of that old, old controversy about
who-shall-inherit-the-kingdom. The central plot concerns two rival
dynasties, the Pandavas and the Kauravas. The families were cousins,
the sons of the brothers Dhritrashtra and Pandu. Dhritrashtra was
older of the two, but since he was blind Pandu was named king. Pandu
had five sons: the eldest and the righteous Yudhisthira (and between
us rather a wimp), Bhima of awesome strength, Arjuna the skilled
warrior, and the good lookers, the twins Nakula and Sahadeva.
Dhritrashtra had 100 sons, the eldest of whom was the wicked
Duryodhana, who was aided and abetted by his Machiavellian uncle
Shakuni. (Apparently Shakuni of Gandhara was carrying out a personal
vendetta of his own by causing the Dhritrashtra-Pandu family to split,
but then it's just a sub-plot in a story with many such bylanes and
avenues.) Through a certain course of events, Pandu was first exiled
and then killed so that when the wife Kunti turned to Dhritrashtra for
help, the well-meaning king took her and her children under his wing.
¤ The Most Fascinating Tale of Mahabharata
s He then packed off her children to Gurukul (school). However here
is where the trouble starts. The Pandavas apparently excelled in all
the skills and subjects so thoroughly that the Kauravas were at first
envious, then jealous and finally bitterly resentful of their cousins.
and the hostility did not stop there. As grown men, when the Pandavas
demanded their kingdom back from Dhritrashtra (who was after all only
ruling in lieu of his brother), the Kauravas flatly refused. of course
the Pandavas were not going to stand for any of this so they
approached Lord Krishna, the master strategist and statesman, for a
solution.
A compromise was reached where the Pandavas were given some land away
from the kingdom – Delhi and its environs – so that they
could be permanently out of the Kauravas’ hair. At that time this
area was dense forestland thickly matted by keekar or babul (prickly
tree with yellow flowers) trees. However, the Pandavas took up the
task of settling this land. Stories from the Mahabharata tell us how
they burnt the forests (it’s a good thing they didn’t have
environmentalists then) and leveled the ground to make way for the
amazing Indraprastha.
After the city was ready, the Pandavas invited the Kauravas over for
a dekko. Apparently, Indraprastha was so spectacular that the Kauravas
were quite dazzled by it. and then they wanted Indraprastha to be part
of their kingdom as well, but that's another story and does not
concern us.
Today the only survivors of the city that floored them all are the
interiors of the Purana Qila (Old Fort). The fort itself was started
by the Mughal king Humayun and completed by Sher Shah Suri who
overthrew him.
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