WHAT'S IN A NAME?
Continued…
The antique city, the capital, Hindustan ka dil – Dilli or Delhi is a name synonymous with history, power and prestige. The etymology, however, remains unclear.
There are many stories associated with the origin of the name Delhi. The most popular is that it is named after Raja Dhilu or Dilu of Kannauj, a Mauryan king who reigned in the first century B.C. The next one stems from the eleventh century and refers to the Tomar King, Anangpal and the famous Iron Pillar. The story is called Kili Dhilli Katha or the tale of the loose nail. It says that a holy man told King Anangpal that the pillar was driven into the hood of Vasuki, the serpent king who supports the earth from below. It was prophesised that Anangpal’s kingdom would survive as long as the pillar remained firm in the ground. The king, being a king, insisted on uprooting the pillar to verify this truth, which resulted in the pillar and the land (also the kingdom) becoming loose or dhili. Hence, the name.
Under the Tomars, many Jain merchants came into the fold of the new capital and coins called ‘Dehliwal’ were circulated. The people using the coins were called dehliwale. However, according to Persian chronicles the name ‘Dehli’ was only used with the advent of Turks. Some say it was a corruption of dehleez or threshold, symbolizing the city to be one to the Indo-Gangetic plains.
Delhi took on different forms and names under the different dynasties that ruled thereafter. Each dynasty came, overthrew the existing one, nearly reduced it to rubble and built their capital in a different part of the city. As a result we have Mehrauli, Siri, Tughluqabad, Jahapanah, Firozabad, Dinpanah, Sher Shah Garh and Shahjahanabad or purani dilli, as we know it today. The spirit of the city was staccato.
Punctuated by tombs, distinct architecture and poetry dilli became a place to reckon with under Shah Jahan. It was a centre of trade, arts, music and literature. Urdu was developed here. Mughlai menu was set here. Mushairas and Music bounced off the walls of Shahjahanbad and it drew people in.
With the fall of the Mughal Empire and subsequent rise of British Empire, in 1911, in a grand durbar, the British announced shifting their capital from Calcutta to Delhi. This was done to establish them as natural successors to the power and privileges of the preceding dynasties for it was believed that “whoever ruled dilli, ruled India”. According to English phonology, there cannot be an ‘h’ at the end of a syllable and Dehli was anglicised to Delhi.
Instead of ruling from Shahjahanabad, The British chose a central part of the city, Raisina hill and around which was free from monuments and decided to build their capital here. It took twenty years to build the Imperial capital under the British architects Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens and Herbert Baker. The capital was built in a style designed to impress upon the minds of the ‘natives’ the superiority of Western Civilization. The spirit of the city changed once more. There is mention that they want to call it Georgabad after King George II but it never came about and by popular usage the new city took on the name New Delhi. And so it has stayed.
It is the hub of political power. It continues to grow as an aggregate of individual wants. Some of the newer areas made of squares of concrete or glass and steel have no conversation with its rich past. Yet, you cannot ignore the strains ‘yeh shehar nahin hai, mehfil hai’ – a mehfil of texture, history, nostalgia, poetry, people, streets, art, culture, music, tombs and monuments.
You might not find it at first but it comes to you…
Books Read & Referenced:
Rana Safvi, City of my Heart
Rana Safvi, Where Stones Speak
Swapna Liddle, Delhi: 14 Historic Walks
Swapna Liddle, Chandni Chowk, The Mughal City of Old Delhi
Rana Dasgupta, Capital