Delhi

Delhi, or Dilli, a division, a district, and its capital in the Punjaub. British India. The division covers an area of 5,609 square miles, lying between the Ganges E. and the deserts of Mooltan W., being bounded S. by Rajpootana and N. by the outlying spurs of the Himalayas. It includes the districts of Delhi, Gurgaon, and Karnal. The district comprises 1,227 square miles. The soil is sandy and the climate warm and dry. Cultivation is dependent on irrigation, which is supplied from the Jumna and its tributaries with several large artificial canals. The bulk of the population is Mohammedan. The city, situated on the right bank of the Jumna, and known in early times as Indraprestha or Inderput, became, after the conquest of North-Western India, the capital of the Mogul Empire, and was then called Shahjehanabad, from the sovereign who enclosed it with a stone wall and adorned it in other ways. In the height of its prosperity its circumference is said to have been thirty miles, but at present this is reduced to eight miles. Many of the old palaces and gardens are mere ruins, but the palace of the Great Mogul, the Jumna Musjid, the Souna Musjid, the tombs of Humaon and Nizam-ud-Deen, and the fort of Salimgarh, are noble specimens of Mussulman architecture. Several of the streets are broad, straight, and finely laid out. The Delhi College, founded in 1792, is an important educational centre. The British under Lake took possession of the city in 1803, and it has remained in their hands ever since, with the exception of a brief period of four months during the Indian Mutiny (1857), when it was recaptured from the rebels by Sir R. Archdale Wilson. The chief local manufactures are gold filigree work, shawls, and embroideries, but being a depot for the trade between Calcutta, Bombay, and Rajpootana, Delhi is one of the most important markets in British India.