According to Jawaharlal Nehru, Delhi is the symbol of old India and new...even the stones here whisper to our ears of the ages of long ago and the air we breathe is full of the dust and fragrances of the past, as also of the fresh and piercing words of the present. What Jawaharlal Nehru is very apt and when we go to Delhi we too have the same feeling. We feel ourselves enigmatic and mesmerized seeing the great monuments built by the great sultans of Delhi. We can hear the echoes of the past.

The city of Delhi was believed to be the legendary capital of Pandavas (Indraprastha), which is mentioned in the epic Mahabharata. From the time of the Mauryans there have been settlements here. The ruins of seven major cities have been discovered in Delhi. Modern Delhi is dated from the finding of Lal Kot, which is considered as the first of Delhi`s seven historical cities. It was in AD 736, that the Tomara Rajput dynasty founded the city of Lal Kot. In 1180, the Chauhans, the rivals of the Rajput clan outsted the Tomaras and renamed the city as Quila Rai Pithora. Only for a deccade the Chauhans remained here.

In 1191, they were outsted by Muhammad Ghur, who was an invader from Afganisthan. He was assasinated in 1206 and Qutb-ud-din Aybak, the first Sultan of Delhi and the founder of salve dynasty established the Delhi Sultanate. It was he who commenced the construction of Qutub Minar and Quwwat-al-Islam, which was the earliest extant mosque in India. He was succeded by Iltutmish and ruled during the period 1211-27. He was the greatest of the early Delhi Sultans. In 1290, the Khaljis, another group of Turks came to power. In 1303, under their king, Ala-ud-din Khalji the second city of Delhi, Siri was built. Siri was a flourishing commercial centre of ornate marble and red sand stone.

Ghiyas- ud -din Tughluq build the third city of Delhi at Tughluqabad, which was 8km east of Qutb. The capital was later shifted 100 km south to Daulatabad in Maharashtra. Water scarcity drew them back to Delhi again. In 1327, the fourth new city, Jahanpanah was built. During the reign of Firoz Shah, the next sultan, moved the Ashokan pillars of Meerut and Topra to the new capital, the fifth city of Firozabad.

In 1398, the Tughluq line came to an end when Timur , a central Asian Turk invaded Delhi. His successors were known as the Sayyids and they were succeded by Bahlul Lodi who built several mosques and tombs, which can be still seen in the Lodi Gardens. The Lodi dynasty came to an end when Sultan Ibrahim Lodi died in battle, fighting against Babur. Babur`s victory marked the dawn of Mughul dynasty.

Babur was succeded in 1530 by his son Humayun. In 1540 he was exiled to Perssia for 15 years by the Afgan king Sher Shah. King Sher Shah built the Din-Panah fort At Shergarh, which was Delhi`s sixth capital and is known today as Purana Quila. In 1555 Humayun retook Delhi, but died the next year and was succeded by his son Akbar. He moved the capital to Agra. However it was under Shah Jahan, who is rightly described as the Ruler of the Universe. Shah Jahan built the seventh city of Delhi that bears his name Shahjahanabad, and is more commonly known as the Old City or Old Delhi. The old city served as the capital of the Mughal Empire since 1638. Shah Jahan was imprisoned by his son Aurangzeb who ruled Delhi till 1681 and then transferred the capital to Deccan Plateau.

In 1707 following the death of Aurangazeb , the city fell a prey to many invasions. In 1739 , Nadir Shah, the emperor from Persia sacked the city and slaughtered about 15,000 of its inhabitants. In 1761, Delhi was raided by Ahmed Shah Abdali after the Third battle of Panipat. In the 18th century, they were followed by successive invaders as Jats, Hindu, Marathas and Afgans.

By the time Delhi came under British control after the Indian Rebellion of 1857. After the Rebellion, Calcutta was declared the capital of British India and Delhi was made a district province of the Punjab. In 1911, Delhi was again declared as the capital of British India. Parts of the old city were pulled down to create New Delhi; a monumental new quarter of the city designed by the British architect Edwin Lutyens. As a result New Delhi was also known as Lutyens. After Independence on 15 August 1947, Delhi, was officially declared as the seat of the Government of India and the capital of the republic. With Independence, it was in Delhi that the British handed over power to India`s first democratically elected Government under Jawaharlal Nehru. In the wake of the Partition, Hindu mobs turned on Delhi`s Muslim population and nearly half of them fled to Pakistan ending centuries of Muslim dominance in the city and they were replaced by an influx of Hindu and Sikh refugees from the pakisthani sectors of Punjab and Bengal.

Indira Gandhi`s Emergency in 1976 saw violent eviction of Old Delhi`s Muslim slum dwellers. Following Indira Gandhi`s assassination in 1984 by her Sikh bodyguards , it was the turn for the city`s Sikh Population to fall victim to sectarian riots. In 1991, the 69th Amendment Act of the constitution declared the Union Territory of Delhi to be formally known as National Capital Territory of Delhi. The Act gave Delhi its own legislative assembly.