Snakes. Delhi 317 



forty-five square miles. Imagine London spreading 

 down to Oxford ! 



Delhi has been the site of a city from time 

 immemorial, long before Christianity was heard of, 

 possibly when the Aryans first spread over India ; 

 tradition, at least, has it so. The name Delhi is first 

 met with about a hundred years before Christ, but 

 by that time the city, which in the Dark Ages was 

 by the river, had spread, or moved itself, nine miles 

 beyond, to the spot where the Kutab Minar now 

 rears itself. Another blank . . . and the carved 

 metal pillar just described is a memorial of the 

 third century after Christ. 



Delhi appears at last in history in A.D. 736, and from 

 then up to the Mutiny it seems to have been the 

 scene of continual conflict, and every fresh conqueror 

 appears to have founded a fresh city a few miles 

 removed from the last. 



The last great Hindu ruler of Delhi was attacked 

 in 1191 by the Mohammedans, overthrown, and the city 

 became henceforth the capital of the Mohammedan 

 Indian Empire, Kutab-ud-dln building a great mosque 

 and the Kutab Tower on the Hindu ruins. Three 

 dynasties rose and fell ; the Pathan kings had been 

 content with the ancient Hindu capital, altered and 

 adorned by each of them, but the fourth ruler built 

 a new capital four miles to the east, called Taghlakabad ; 

 the ruined streets, lanes, and fort of the long deserted 

 city are plainly visible. 



Once more, Feroz Shah Taghlak transferred the 



