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 places find record. Nevertheless, the last pilgrim, Hwen Thsang, must have passed close to the site of Delhi, for he retraced his steps from Muttra to Thanesar, and, had Delhi been a very large or important city, he would surely have taken some notice of it. Again, we have accounts of India dating from about a.d. 1000, when Mahmud of Ghazni invaded the country, sacked Kanauj and Muttra, and other places of importance ; but there is no mention of Delhi, which can-not have been a tempting prey for the rapacious invader.

We may, therefore, with some confidence suppose (and it is generally agreed) that Delhi was first occupied somewhere about the year A.D. 300, that the city was afterwards abandoned, for some cause which we do not know, and that it was not repeopled until a.d. 1052, after the final retirement of Mahmud of Ghazni. Anang Pal was a Tuar, which tribe had been forced to leave Kanauj, which was sacked by Mahmud ; possibly it was this forced migration which led him to think of Delhi as his new capital. He must, however, have had a considerable force at his disposal, for Delhi lay direct in the route of foreign invaders, the incursions of whom were still fresh in men's minds, although they had for the time being ceased.