Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/60

Rh Prithivi Rdja, was the last Hindu ruler of Delhi. In 1191 came the invasion of Muhammad of Ghor. Defeated on this occasion, Muhammad returned two years later, overthrew the Hindus, and captured and put to death Prithivi Ildja. Delhi became henceforth the capital of the Mahometan Indian empire, Kutab-ud-clin (the general and slave of Muhammad of Ghor) being left in command. His dynasty is known as that of the slave kings, and it is to them that old Delhi owes its grandest remains, among them Kutab- ud-din s mosque and pillar, a few miles south of the modern city. The slave dynasty retained the throne till 1288, when it was subverted by Jaldl-ud-dfn Ghilzdi. The most remarkable monarch of this dynasty was A.la-ud-dm, during whose reign Delhi was twice exposed to attack from invad ing hordes of Mughuls. On the first occasion, Ala-ud-din defeated them under the walls of his capital ; on the second, after encamping for two months in the neighbourhood of the city, they retired without a battle. The house of Ghilzai came to an end in 1321, and was followed by that of Taghlak. Hitherto the Pathdn kings had been content with the ancient Hindu capital, altered and adorned to suit their tastes. But one of the first acts of the founder of the uew dynasty, Ghias-ud-din Taghlak, was to erect a new capital about four miles further to the east, which he called Taghlakdbdd. The ruins of his fort remain, and the eye can still trace the streets and lanes of the long deserted city. Ghias-ud-din was succeeded by his sou Muhammad Taghlak, who reigned from 1325 to 1351, and is described by Elphinstone as &quot; one of the most accomplished princes and most furious tyrants that ever adorned or disgraced human nature.&quot; Under this monarch the Delhi of the Taghlak dynasty attained its utmost growth. His successor Firoz Shah Taghlak trans ferred the capital to a new town which he founded some miles off, on the north of the Kutab, and to which he gave his own name, Firozdbdd. In 1398, during the reign of Mahmud Taghlak, occurred the Tartar invasion of Timurlane. The king fled to Guzerat, his army was defeated under the walls of Delhi, and the city surrendered. The town, notwithstanding a promise of protection, was plundered and burned ; the citizens were massacred. The invaders at last retired, leaving Delhi without a Govern ment, and almost without inhabitants. At length Mahmud Taghlak regained a fragment of his former kingdom, but on his death in 1412 the family became extinct. He was succeeded by the Sayyid dynasty, which held Delhi and a a few miles of surrounding territory till 1444, when it gave way to the house of Lodi, during whose rule the capital was removed to Agra. In 1526 Baber, sixth in descent from Timurlane, invaded India, defeated and killed Ibrahim Lodi at the battle of Panipat, entered Delhi, was proclaimed emperor, and finally put an end to the Afghan empire. Baber s capital was at Agra, but his son and successor, Humayun, removed it to Delhi. In 1540 Humdyun was defeated and expelled by Sher Shah, who entirely rebuilt the city, inclosing and fortifying it with a new wall. In his time Delhi extended from where Humdyun s tomb now is to near the southern gate of the modern city. In 1555 Humayun, with the assistance of Persia, regained the throne ; but he died within six months afterwards, and was succeeded by his son, the illustrious Akbdr. During Akbdr s reign and that of his son Jahdngir, the capital was either at Agra or at Lahore, and Delhi once more fell into decay. Between 1638 and 1658, however, Shah Jahdn rebuilt it almost in its present form ; and his city remains substantially the Delhi of the present time. The imperial palace, the Jdmd Masjid or great mosque, and the restoration of what is now the western Jumna canal, are the work of Shah Jahdn. The Mughul empire rapidly expanded during the reigns of Akbdr and his successors down to Aurungzebe, when it attained its climax. After the death of the latter monarch, in 1707, came the decline. Insurrections and civil wars on the part of the Hindu tri butary chiefs, Sikhs and Marhattds, broke out. Aurungzebe s successors became the helpless instruments of conflict ing chiefs. His grandson, Jahdndar Shdh was, in 1713, deposed and strangled after a reign of one year ; and Farrakhsiyyar, the next in succession, met with the same fate in 1719. He was succeeded by Muhammad Shah, in whose reign the Marhattd forces first made their ap pearance before the gates of Delhi, in 1736. Three years later the Persian monarch, Nadir Shdh, after defeating the Mughul army at Karndl, entered Delhi in triumph. While engaged in levying a heavy contribution, the Persian troops were attacked by the populace, and many of them were killed. Nadir Shdh, after vainly attempting to stay the tumult, at last gave orders for a general massacre of the inhabitants. For fifty-eight days Nadir Shdh remained in Delhi, and when he left he carried with him a treasure in money amounting, at the lowest computation, to eight or nine millions sterling, besides jewels of inestimable value, and other property to the amount of several millions more. From this time (1740) the decline of the empire pro ceeded unchecked and with increased rapidity. In 1771 Shdh Alain, the son of Alamgir II., was nominally raised to the throne by the Marhattds, the real sovereignty resting with the Marhatta chief, Sindhia. An attempt of the puppet emperor to shake himself clear of the Marhattds, in which he was defeated in 1788, led to a permanent Mar hattd garrison being stationed at Delhi. From this date, the king remained a cipher in the hands of Sindhia, who treated him with studied neglect, until the 8th September 1803, when Lord Lake overthrew the Marhattds under the walls of Delhi, entered the city, and took the king under the protection of the British. Delhi, once more attacked by a Marhattd army under the Marhattd chief Holkar in 1804, was gallantly defended by Colonel Ochterlony, the British resident, who held but against overwhelming odds for eight days, until relieved by Lord Lake. From this date a new era in the history of Delhi began. A pension of 120,000 per annum was allowed to the king, with ex clusive jurisdiction over the palace, and the titular sove reignty as before; but the city, together with the Delhi territory, passed under British administration. Fifty-three years of quiet prosperity for Delhi were brought to a close by the mutiny of 1857. Its capture by the mutineers, its siege, and its subsequent recapture by the British have been often told, and nothing beyond a short notice is called for here. The outbreak at Meerut occurred on the night of the 10th May 1857. Immediately after the mur der of their officers, the rebel soldiery set out for Delhi about 35 miles distant, and on the following morning entered the city, where they were joined by the city mob. Mr Fraser, the commissioner, Mr Hutchinson, the collector, Captain Douglas, the commandant of the palace guards, and the Rev. Mr Jennings, the residency chaplain, were at onco murdered, as were also most of the civil and non-official residents whose houses were situated within the city walls. The British troops in cantonments consisted of three regi ments of native infantry and a battery of artillery. These cast in their lot with the mutineers, and commenced by killing their officers. The Delhi magazine, then the largest in the north-west of India, was in the charge of Lieutenant Willoughby, with whom were two other officers and six non-commissioned officers. The magazine was attacked by the mutineers, but the little baud defended to the last the enormous accumulation of munitions of war stored there, and, when further defence was hopeless, fired the magazine Five of the nine wore killed by the explosion, and

