Fort in Medieval Period
Fort was called as the inner citadel of the city of Dina-panah during Humayun's rule who renovated it in 1533 and completed five years later. Purana Qila and its environs flourished as the "sixth city of Delhi".
The founder of the Suri Dynasty, Sher Shah Suri, defeated Humayun in 1540, renaming the fort Shergarh; he added several more structures in the complex during his five year reign until his death in 1545.
Subsequently Islam Shah took over the reins of North India from this fort, but shifted his capital to Gwalior, as it was supposed to be a safer capital in that period, leaving the charge of Delhi and Punjab to his Hindu General Hemu. After Islam Shah's death in 1553, Adil Shah Suri took charge of North India. General Hemu was busy in quelling rebellion in east India and the fort remained neglected. Adil Shah shifted his capital further east to Chunar in present day Uttar Pradesh. Humayun, who was based in Kabul at this time, seized the opportunity to re-capture the citadel and the seat of Delhi in 1555, fifteen years after abandoning it following his defeats at the hands of the Suri Dynasty in the Battles of Chausa and Kannauj. Humayun's reign proved brief thereafter; he died following a tragic accidental fall within the fort complex at Sher Mandal only a year later, in Jan. 1556.
Hearing about re-capture of Delhi by Humayun, Hemu, the Hindu Prime Minister – cum – Chief of Army of Adil Shah, rushed towards Delhi from Bengal, where he had just quelled a rebellion, defeating and killing Muhhamad Shah, the ruler of Bengal. After capturing Agra, Itawah, and Kanpur with relative ease, Hemu, who had won 22 battles spanning entire north India, met and defeated the forces of Akbar, which were led by Tardi Beg Khan, in the Battle for Delhi, which took place in the Tuglaqabad area on 5–6 October 1556. Hemu had his Rajyabhishek or Coronation at Purana Quila on 7 October 1556, declared 'Hindu Raj' in North India, and was bestowed the title of Samrat Hem Chandra Vikramaditya. Hemu, who later lost his life at the Second battle of Panipat in Nov. 1556, subsequently had his torso hung outside this fort to create terror among Hindus.
Read more about this topic: Purana Qila, Delhi
Famous quotes containing the words fort in, fort, medieval and/or period:
“The newspapers are the ruling power. Any other government is reduced to a few marines at Fort Independence. If a man neglects to read the Daily Times, government will go down on its knees to him, for this is the only treason these days.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“So here they are, the dog-faced soldiers, the regulars, the fifty-cents-a-day professionals riding the outposts of the nation, from Fort Reno to Fort Apache, from Sheridan to Stark. They were all the same. Men in dirty-shirt blue and only a cold page in the history books to mark their passing. But wherever they rode and whatever they fought for, that place became the United States.”
—Frank S. Nugent (1908–1965)
“The medieval university looked backwards; it professed to be a storehouse of old knowledge.... The modern university looks forward, and is a factory of new knowledge.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895)
“There is not any present moment that is unconnected with some future one. The life of every man is a continued chain of incidents, each link of which hangs upon the former. The transition from cause to effect, from event to event, is often carried on by secret steps, which our foresight cannot divine, and our sagacity is unable to trace. Evil may at some future period bring forth good; and good may bring forth evil, both equally unexpected.”
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719)