Jahanpanah

Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R)

---

Jahanpanah (जहांपनाह) was the fourth medieval city of Delhi established in 1326–1327 by Muhammad bin Tughlaq (1321–51), of the Delhi Sultanate.

Origin

Jahanpanah's consists of two Persian words, جهان ‘Jahan’, "the world", and پناه ‘panah’,"shelter", meaning "Refuge of the World"

Variants

• Jahanpanah (जहांपनाह) (AS, p.361)

History

To address the constant threat of the Mongols, Tughlaq built the fortified city of Jahanpanah (meaning in Persian: "Refuge of the World") subsuming the Adilabad fort that had been built in the 14th century and also all the establishments lying between Qila Rai Pithora and Siri Fort. Neither the city nor the fort has survived. Many reasons have been offered for such a situation. One of which is stated as the idiosyncratic rule of Mohammed bin Tughlaq when inexplicably he shifted the capital to Daulatabad in the Deccan and came back to Delhi soon after.

The ruins of the city's walls are even now discerned in the road between Siri to Qutub Minar and also in isolated patches behind the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), in Begumpur, Khirki Masjid near Khirki village, Satpula and many other nearby locations; at some sections, as seen at Satpula, the fort walls were large enough to have few in built storerooms to stack provisions and armory. The mystery of the city's precincts (complex) has unfolded over the years with later day excavations revealing a large number of monuments in the villages and colonies of South Delhi. Due to compulsions of urban expansion of the Capital City of Delhi, Jahanpanah is now part of the upscale urban development of South Delhi. The village and the wealth of ruins scattered all around are now enclosed by South Delhi suburbs of Panchshil Park South, Malviya Nagar, Adchini, the Aurobindo Ashram, Delhi branch and other smaller housing colony developments. It is hemmed in the North–South direction between the Outer Ring Road and the Qutb Complex and on the east–west direction by the Mehrauli road and the Chirag Delhi road, with Indian Institute of Technology located on the other side of the Mehrauli road as an important landmark.

जहांपनाह

विजयेन्द्र कुमार माथुर ने लेख किया है ...जहांपनाह (AS, p.361) वर्तमान दिल्ली के निकट तुगलक कालीन ध्वस्त नगर. मोहम्मद तुगलक ने 1350 ई. के लगभग इस शहर की बुनियाद डाली थी. इसे दिल्ली के सात नगरों में से चौथा कहा जाता है. जहांपनाह की सीमा पिथौरागढ़ और सीरी (अलाउद्दीन खिलजी की दिल्ली)-- दोनों के परकोटों को मिलाकर बनाई गई थी. इसके अंदर एक सुंदर प्रासाद बनवाया गया था, जिसे बदीए-मंजिल (आनंद भवन) कहा जाता था. इसका दूसरा नाम विजय-मंडल था. इसनाम से यह आज भी प्रसिद्ध है. इस नगर के परकोटे के भीतर चिराग दिल्ली, बेगमपुरी मस्जिद आदि भवन स्थित थे. नगर के तीस प्रवेशद्वार थे.