were swayed by some momentary whim engendered by local circumstances, of which few records are in existence. In some of these towns and forts were displayed all the architectural beauties that time, which unlimited resources, and the particular taste of each sovereign allowed of his indulging in; and the most expensive materials were brought from a great distance at a vast cost, to give them the most gorgeous appearance; while other structures were raised in the most massive, but at the same time, rude style, the result probably of the pressing necessities of the times, especially the frequent and distant wars in which most of the sovereigns of Dehli were continually engaged, and which left them little time for the cultivation of the arts of peace. In these were used the coarse materials on the spot, and the monuments of the glory of former kings were frequently destroyed to save the trouble of quarrying new stone. For in this manner alone can we account for the comparatively few remnants we find at the present day of the massive battlements that must have surrounded several at least of the towns of Delhi in succession, or of the huge piles of buildings that must have been reared within their walls.* There are nevertheless numerous historical proofs, supported, notwithstanding the extensive devastation to be traced in many directions, by local evidence of the most convincing character, that the several towns, built from time to time, in the neighbourhood of the present Delhi, cannot have been less than thirteen, while tradition, which may, on investigation, turn out partially correct, adds some three or four more to the number. Of the extreme desirableness, in an archæological point of view of fixing the locality of these several towns and forts, and of the value attaching, in a historical point, to researches, which shall identify these localities, with the names that occur in the records of the times, there can, it is presumed, be very little doubt. The historians of the Indo-Mahometan middle ages have placed many of those names on record. They have, in several instances, described the relative positions * Seree, Jehanpunnah and Old Dehli, must, at the time of the invasion of Taimoor, have occupied a space at least seven miles in length, by some three or four in breadth. The three towns had thirty gates opening to the country or into one another. We hope some day to give an accurate outline of these cities. It is not to be wondered that Saiud Moobarik found it necessary to build another town soon after Taimoor's invasion; he must have left Old Dehli almost a heap of ruins.-H. C.-H. L. of the various capitals of the Indian empire, that have flourished, under the several names imposed upon them by the caprice or vanity of their founders, and a short review of these records may not be out of place in this paper, introductory, as it is hoped it may prove, to further researches on this interesting subject. All allusion to traditional evidence is omitted. We find it recorded that Kootub-ood-deen Eibuk the first permanent Mahomedan conqueror, and his almost immediate successor, Shumsood-deen Altumsh or Altumish, both inhabited the fort which the first of them wrested from Rajah Peethowra or Peerthee Raj (from 11911236); we find that Gheias-ood-deen Bulbun (1266-1286) erected another fort and built another town "in which were magnificent buildings;" amongst them the celebrated "Ruby" or "Red Palace;" this town will prove, in all probability, to have been the one so long designated in after ages, and when new cities had sprung up, as "Old Dehli," and the site of this place may perhaps be traced through the existence at this day of the village of Gheiaspoor, near Hoomaioon's tomb and the Deenpunnah fort. We find that Kaikobad, his grandson, (1286-88) fitted up a Palace at Kelok heree (Gunglook heree, according to the Ayeen Akhberee) the site of which is clearly indicated by a remark in that work to the effect that Hoomaioon's tomb was within its limits, and this indication is confirmed by the existence of a place of that name, a little beyond Gheiaspoor. The palace built by Kaikobad was then so close to the river that his body was thrown out of one of the windows into the stream. We find that his successor, Julal-ood-deen Feroz (1288-95), having no confidence in the loyalty of the people of Dehli (the Delhi of Gheias-ood-deen Bulbun?) continued. to reside at Kelokheree; this he strengthened with fortifications, and beautified with five gardens, and terraced walks by the side of the river. It is said that the owners followed their king's example, and built houses around his palace, so that Kelokheree became known as the new city (of Delhi), and that Julal-ood-deen having been induced, by the conduct of the neighbouring citizens his subjects, to place greater confidence in them, went on an appointed day to "old Dehli," where he The Jumna has taken a considerable turn eastward since then. There is pretty conclusive evidence that, at one time, the main stream flowed by Feerozabad, Deenpunnah, Kelokheree and Mobarikabad, forming doubtless, on account of the huge bund inland or westward, a very fine and attractive sheet of water.-H. C.-H. L. ascended the throne in the Palace; refusing at the same time to take possession of the "Ruby Palace," on the ground that it was the private property of the family of Gheias-ood-deen Bulbun. He returned to Kelokheree in the evening of the same day, so that "old Dehli," and Kelokheree must have been very near each other, another presumptive proof in favor of Gheiaspoor of the present day being "old Dehli."* We find that on the murder of Jellal-ood-deen at Manikpoor, by his nephew, the famous Allah-ood-deen Ghilzaie, the widow of the former proclaimed her young son king, and, accompanying him from Kelok heree to Dehli, that is from the then new, to the old city, seated him on the throne in the "Green Palace," so that there were at that time no less than three royal Residences in the same town-one the Palace (in which Jellal-ood-deen ascended the throne, and which may have been the "White Palace" mentioned in the reign of Moez-ood-deen Barram), the "Ruby Palace," so often alluded to, and the "Green Palace." Allah-ood-deen, on the flight of his young cousin, entered Dehli in triumph, and ascended the throne in the throne in the "Ruby Palace," (1296-1316.) We find it mentioned in the Ayeen Akhberee, though the fact is singularly enough not even alluded to in Ferishta, that this Allah-ood-deen built the town and fort of " Secree," and the site of this place is most clearly fixed by the record in a subsequent part of Ferishta, that the tomb of Kootub-ood-deen Bukhteear Kakee (the saint to whom pilgrimages are still made at the Kootub village, so well known for its splendid Kootubmeenar) was situate in the fort of Secree. Another collateral proof of this location is that the tomb of Allah-ood-deen is still in partial existence near the Meenar. It is recorded of Allah-ood-deen, that Palaces, Mosques, Universities, Baths, Mausolea, forts and all kinds of public and private buildings sprang up, during his reign, as if by magic. After Secree follow Toglukabad (1322) Mahomedabad, (1325-1351,) Adilabad, and Feerozabad (1354) all pretty well known and of which last, more hereafter. Ten years after the death of the founder of Feerozabad occurred the invasion of Taimoor (1398) of which we have ample records in that king's own institutes and in the work of Shereefood-deen, Alee-Yazdu who singularly enough, gives details regarding the then state of Dehli, which are not to be found *The "old Delhi" here and elsewhere alluded to, must not be confounded with the town now so called, which will prove to have been founded by Sher Shah.-H. C.-II. L. in any other work, and the details which he gives respecting Secree, Jehanpunnah, the Houz-khan, and old Dehli will be most valuable in hereafter identifying the ground on which these several places were situate. After this we leave Mubareekabad, built by the second Saiud, in 1436, on the banks of the Jumna, the site of which must have been most likely, either below Kelokheree, or above Ferozabad. We find that Hoomaioon, built (1533) according to Abul Fazl, (but repaired would probably be the more correct expression, as this will probably be found to have been the fort of "old Dehli" or "Gheiaspoor") the fort of Indraput, which he called "Deenpunnah," that on his expulsion by Sher Shah (Abul Fazl calls him merely Sher Khan, looking upon him in the light of an usurper,) that sovereign destroyed Secree, the town and fort built by Allah-ood-deen, and laid the foundations of another town. (1542-1545); this the author of the Ayeen Akhberee tells us, was for the most part in ruins in his time, and will probably turn out to be the town, of which the two extreme gates (N. and S. nearly) are still in existence one (the Kabulee) near the Dehli gate of Shahjehanabad, and the other a very splendid edifice (the Muthra gate) near the western wall of Deenpunnah. The fact of this town having so soon gone to decay may be easily accounted for by the fact of Akhber having transferred the seat of Government to Agra; while the absence, at Agra and elsewhere, dur ing some twenty years, of Sekunder Lodie, and his short-lived successors, immediately before Baber's arrival in India, may have rendered it imperative on Hoomaioon, to provide a suitable place of residence on his coming to the throne.* It has been observed above, and will be gathered from the details which follow, that much is to be gleaned from some of the historical records of the time, and no doubt more accurate information will be obtained, by a careful examination of the many authors, who are as yet but little known, at our disposal; but in consequence of some of the writers of these records being personally unacquainted with the places they named, while the original works of others have had the serious misfortune of falling into the hands of copyists, on whom alone we have now to depend, and who themselves rarely knew any thing of the neighbourhood The utility of this sketch was suggested by the perusal of an admirable letter from Mr. H. M. Elliot, Secretary to Government to the Secretary Archæological Society, in which many of these point are touched upon. * of Dehli. Considerable confusion has thus naturally arisen, and it has become a matter of great difficulty to identify many names and places, which nothing but a careful local investigation can overcome. Translators again, frequently affording the only means of obtaining information, have contributed considerably to increase the existing confusion, by attributing little or no importance to the accurate details in their original; they probably looked on these details as of mere local interest, and consequently slurred them over carelessly, or omitted them altogether in a very culpable manner, while the wretched orthography, adopted by some of those who have been otherwise more careful, has so entirely obscured the original and proper nomenclature, as to render it almost a matter of impossibility to recognize, in the translations, names of places and persons which, would be familiar under the original, very different, and perfectly, intelligible garb. We find even Bishop Heber, generally a better informed traveller, and more careful investigator, than many of those who preceded him, and than more who came after him, writing as follows of some of the remains he saw, and how grievously he was misinformed on this particular point will be seen by all; that he was so in several other instances, will be shown hereafter. By means, however, of local researches of the nature previously alluded to, continued perseveringly, and with an unity of purpose that will, it is to be hoped, characterize the proceedings of our Society, we shall be enabled, in time, to prepare, from the materials in progress, a respectable "Hand Book of Dehli," in which the traveller will be furnished with more authentic accounts, than now exist, or at least are generally accessible, of the various buildings and ruins about Dehli, and which it may be desirable for him to examine if more than a mere sight-seer, so as to understand something at least of the former state of this country, and not have to wander through the mazy mass of ancient remains in almost utter ignorance of the date of their erections, the object with which they were built, the name of the founder, and the date and occasion of their destruction or decay, gazing upon them, in fact, with the undefined feelings of a child looking down into a dark passage, totally ignorant of its extent. "In our way, one mass of ruins, larger than the rest, was pointed out *Col. Briggs is a brilliant exception. |