Indraprastha

Main article: History of Delhi

1000 g BC.

Indraprastha is the capital of the Pandavas

Indraprastha is named the capital of the Pandava principality. It is believed that this city became the first significant settlement in the area of modern Delhi, where many rulers have since changed with their new states.

The most popular source of information about Kuru and their relatives (Pandavas), their love-hate relationship and above all their wars is the "Mahabharata." There is no doubt that early Pali (and Buddhist) literature, as well as this Sanskrit and Brahmanic epic, drew information about Kuru from one source.

According to the "Mahabharata," the capital of Kuru was Hastinapur on the Yamuna River. After winning the war described in the "Mahabharata," the Pandavas moved to Hastinapur and Indraprastha was given to the Yadavas. The Pandavas ruled from Hastinapur until the reign of Nishu. Nishu, the fifth after Parikshit, moved his capital to Kaushambi because Hastinapur was washed away by the floodwaters of the Ganges. The Yadavas also later left Indraprastha for Mathura, but the settlement remained an important town in the Principality of Kuru.

The "Mahabharata" has a vivid description of the foundation of the capital in Indraprastha and its beauty. To avoid strife, Pandav's blind uncle Dhritarashtra and Bhishma gave half of their kingdom to the Pandavas and asked them to go to the Khandava Tract, which was a forest area. The tract was to be cleared with the help of Agni, the god of fire. It was in this place, Khandavaprastha, that the Pandavas built a new fortified city, which was named Indraprastha.

The "Mahabharata" says that before the construction of the city, there was a heavily forested, deserted place where 'evil spirits' lived. The Pandava brothers, having received this land, drove the native inhabitants of the'nagas' and 'Tashkaks' from it, cleared the forest and built a beautiful city, giving it the name of the god Indra ('prastha' means' settlement 'in Sanskrit).

The name Indraprastha survives in the later Puranas and in tantric works, but they hardly added anything to our knowledge of the city.

Until the early twentieth century, a village called Indapat, apparently derived from Indraprastha mentioned in the "Mahabharata," was inside the modern fortress of Purana Kila. According to the folk tradition, the current place names Baghpat, Tilpat, Sonepat and Panipat are the other four of the five patas or places that the Pandavas demanded from the Kauravas, and it is important that all these places gave painted grey ceramics associated with the "Mahabharata" places that were discovered after excavations at Hastinapur in the 1950s.

Culture of painted grey ceramics in Indraprastha

Excavations at the site of the medieval Purana Kila fortress (see History of Delhi) have uncovered Iron Age pottery, the so-called grey ware. Its presence proves that the excavation site was inhabited more than 3,000 years ago, which coincides with the estimated time of existence of Indraprastha.

In 1955, trial trenches dug at three points on the lower levels of the mound in the Purana Kila fortress, traditionally considered the site of the ancient city of Indraprastha, showed that the earliest settlement here began around 1000 BC. e., when painted gray ceramics were used. Trial excavations also revealed structures from the Sunga and Kushan periods. The Excavation Branch of the Archaeological Survey of India, led by B. B. Lal, B. K. Tapar and M. K. Joshi, and with the assistance of a team of archaeologists, conducted a full-scale excavation at Purana Kila in 1969. The work continued for four years.

During the excavations, archaeologists discovered evidence of material culture relating to the Maurya, Sunga, Kushan, Gupta, post-Gupta, Rajput and Delhi Sultanate periods up to the Mughal period. This was enough to confirm local traditions about the antiquity and continuity of urban settlements in Delhi, at least on the site of Purana Kila. However, the group also revealed layers of pre-Mauryan, but could not find a regular cultural horizon of painted gray ceramics. However, the presence of some shards of this pottery, some of which were used as classical, did indicate that regular deposits of this pottery should have existed here. In addition, in one of the trenches in the levels associated with the northern black polished ceramics, several thin and beautiful shards of gray ceramics were found, closely associated with painted gray ceramics, and a fragment of a stand for offerings made of red ceramics. Interestingly, in the open area near the tomb of Humayun, located about three kilometers south of Purana Kila along the old Yamuna channel, baskets full of shards of painted gray ceramics were collected in redeposited garbage.

600 BC: Indapatta is the capital of one of the Mahajanapads

It is clear from Buddhist tradition that even before Buddha's time there were sixteen Grand Principalities (Mahajanapad) covering almost all of the northern India from modern Afghanistan to. Bangladesh The modern region Delhi was part of the Kuru Ratha, one of sixteen Mahajanapads. It is known that there were many cities and villages in this principality. The most important of these was Indapatta. It was the place from which the ruler of Dhananjaya Korabya, who belonged to the Yudhittila Gotta, ruled his principality.

Another Kuru city mentioned in Buddhist texts is Tullakottika. The location of this town has not been determined. Interestingly, Hastinapur, the capital of the Kauravas, does not receive as much attention as Indapatta in Buddhist sources. Only in the later text is there a reference to Hattinipura (not Hattinapura) as a city of the principality of Kuru. On the other hand, in Jain sources, although there are references to Hattinaura, Hattinapura and Hattinagapura, there is no reference to Indapatta or Indraprastha in any form.

Sermons of the Buddha in Kamasadamma

The city of Indapatta was seven leagues long. It was noted as one of the three main cities of modern Jambudipa (the geocultural "India" of Buddhist tradition). Moreover, it was well connected by roads to other cities, such as Benares.

Kuru Ratthi Township, possibly located near Indapatta, was a nigama (essentially a trading centre) of Kammasadamma or Kamasadhamma. Both variants of this name are mentioned in the early Nikayas and mentioned in Buddhaghoshi commentaries in the fourth century AD. The Buddha stayed there several times and several very important sermons were given there. According to one Jataka, there were two places with the same name, and they differed as the great Kammasadamma (Maha-Kammasadamma) and the little Kammasadamma (Kulla Kammasadamma). Divyavadan also has a mention of Kammasdamya, where the nuns Nanduttara and Mithakalika lived.

185 BC: Indraprastha in the Mauryan Empire

1st century: Kashi and Indraprastha are India's biggest cities

The Jatakas tell that Indraprastha was second only to Kashi (ancient Varanasi) in magnitude.

2nd century: Ptolemy mentions the city of Indrabar

In the second century C.E., Ptolemy mentions the city of Indrabar, which can be identified with Indraprastha.

The decline of Indraprastha during the Gupta period

Indraprastha's significance seems to have declined around the Gupta period. Perhaps that's why we find no mention of him in the travel records of Chinese traveler Hiuen Tsang.

Map of the Gupta empire around 420 AD e., according to Joseph E. Schwarzberg

Even Harsha, who could choose Indraprastha, chose to move the capital from Thaneshwar to Kannauj.

At some point in time, Indraprastha was either defeated or abandoned, information about him lost in the centuries.

1540s: In place of Indraprastha, Mughal emperor Humayun builds Purana Kila fortress

According to a number of Indian scholars, the Purana Kila fortress, built in the 1540s as the center of the city created by the Mughal emperor Humayun, could have been erected on the site of Indraprastha in Delhi. See History of Delhi.

18th century: Indraprastha is mentioned as one of the five divisions of India, in terms of tantra

Indraprastha is still mentioned in the eighteenth-century text Saktisangama Tantra as one of the five divisions of India, in terms of tantra.