Old Delhi with Vishnu Menon

The Musafir Stories - India Travel Podcast

This week, The Musafir Stories speaks with Vishnu Menon, a traveller and a student of History, as he takes us to Old Delhi aka Shahjahanabad!

Today's destination: Old Delhi!

Nearest Airport: Indira Gandhi International airport (DEL)

Nearest Railway Station: New Delhi Railway station (NDLS)

Prerequisites - NA

Packing - Good walking shoes, water to stay hydrated, umbrella, shades

Time of the year - Oct, Feb, Mar

Length of the itinerary: 3-5 days

Itinerary Highlights:

Vishnu starts by covering the history and background of the 7 cities of Delhi, and why it was so important over the years
We focus our discussion on Shahjanabad or current day Old Delhi, Delhi 6.
1. Lal Kot / Qila Rai Pithora - settled by the Tomars and the Rajputs, including Prithviraj Chauhan
2. Siri - In 1192, Mohammad Ghori defeated Prithviraj, and left the region to his slave and commander, Qutbuddin Aibak, who built the city of Siri, which was also used and consolidated by the Khilji dynasty.
3. Tughlaqabad -
4. Jahanpanah - Ghiyassudin Tughlaq’s impressive fort-city, which can still be visited, was cursed from the start, and his successor Mohammad bin Tughlaq fortified the walls of Qila Rai Pithora and Siri, and encapsulated them into a new city: Jahanpanah
5. Firozabad/ Feroz Shah Kotla - His successor, Feroz Shah Tughlaq, was the first to build a fort along the Yamuna, recognized as the fifth city of Delhi. Feroz Shah’s city was humongous by the standards of the day, extending from the Northern Ridge (where the other Ashokan Pillar stands) to Hauz Khas
6. Shergarh - Then, Sher Shah Suri, upon defeating Humayun in 1540, returned to Indrapat, a purportedly ancient village, and built his city, Shergarh, at the same site.
7. Dinpanah - Humayun came to power in 1555, and added to that, building the Purana Qila as his city, Dinpanah.Shah Jahan’s great-grandfather, Humayun, too, had built a capital city there—Dinpanah, which later came to be called the Purana Qila or ‘Old Fort’.
8. Shahjahanabad - Shahjahan was the next Mughal to reign from Delhi, and gave it the most recent historical city,Shahjahanabad. Northward along the Yamuna, it had fourteen gates, and enjoyed the Golden Era of Mughal rule. It continued to serve as the Mughal capital until the end of the dynasty in 1857, in the decades before which it saw a brilliant cultural renaissance, a time of high etiquette, courtly graces and flourishing literary and music culture.
We talk about the main structures around which Shahjahanabad is structured - Red Fort and Jama Masjid
We also speak about the different developments that came up between and around these structures including Chandni Chowk, mosques, temples, markets, food streets, nature and much more.