The Red Fort in Delhi is a huge seventeenth century Mughal palace fortress and the most iconic landmark of Delhi. It was built as part of the relocation of the Mughal capital from Agra to Delhi but is now a sadly crumbling shadow of that former glory.
Visiting Delhi Red Fort
Sadly, the British must take the blame for a lot of damage done to the Red Fort as far as removing the original Mughal buildings from the inside. Combined with the earlier sacking and looting of the Persians it means that huge swathes of the interior are devoid of the original buildings.
The map here gives an idea of the layout of the fort:
That being said, what is left gives an idea of the grandeur of the fortress built by Shah Jahan after he had moved the capital from Agra to Delhi. The fort is open every day and is next to the Chandi Chowk market area.
My Experience
Our visit to Delhi was the first stage of our honeymoon in 2011 and the Red Fort was our first stop after breakfast. Delhi was rather a shock to the senses with the noise, chaos and sheer number of people. The walk through the market area before the fort showed both gorgeous architecture and well, chaos is really the only word. Shops overflowing onto pavements, roads and pavements pitted with holes, cables knocked through Mughal walls, a huge variety of both pleasant and markedly unpleasant smells, people flowing everywhere and all accompanied by the constant cacophony of car horns. After that, the relative peace of the interior of the Red Fort was bliss!
My photography here is, frankly, abysmal. I had just bought the camera before the honeymoon so wasn’t really used to it and it seemed to suffer massively from the Indian dust. I’m not sure if that’s a feature of mirrorless cameras generally but I did replace it soon after. The travel blog of our Indian trip with plenty of info on all the sites is here.
Delhi Red Fort Photo Gallery
History
Emperor Shah Jahan commissioned construction of the Red Fort on 12 May 1638, when he decided to shift his capital from Agra to Delhi. Originally red and white, Shah Jahan’s favourite colours, its design is credited to architect Ustad Ahmad Lahori, who also constructed the Taj Mahal. The fort lies along the Yamuna River, which fed the moats surrounding most of the walls. Construction began in the sacred Islamic month of Muharram, on 13 May 1638. Supervised by Shah Jahan, it was completed on 6 April 1648. Unlike other Mughal forts, the Red Fort’s boundary walls are asymmetrical to contain the older Salimgarh Fort. The fortress-palace was a focal point of the city of Shahjahanabad, which is present-day Old Delhi. Shah Jahan’s successor, Aurangzeb, added the Moti Masjid (Pearl Mosque) to the emperor’s private quarters, constructing barbicans in front of the two main gates to make the entrance to the palace more circuitous.
The administrative and fiscal structure of the Mughal dynasty declined after Aurangzeb, and the 18th century saw a degeneration of the palace. In 1712 Jahandar Shah became the Mughal Emperor. Within a year of beginning his rule, Shah was murdered and replaced by Farrukhsiyar. Muhammad Shah, known as ‘Rangila’ (the Colourful) for his interest in art. In 1739, Persian emperor Nadir Shah easily defeated the strong Mughal army of around 200,000 soldiers, plundering the Red Fort, including the Peacock Throne. Nadir Shah returned to Persia after three months, leaving a destroyed city and a weakened Mughal empire to Muhammad Shah. The internal weakness of the Mughal Empire made the Mughals only titular rulers of Delhi, and a 1752 treaty made the Marathas protectors of the throne at Delhi. The 1758 Maratha victory at Sirhind aided by the Sikhs and successive defeat at Panipat placed them in further conflict with Ahmad Shah Durrani.
In 1760, the Marathas removed and melted the silver ceiling of the Diwan-i-Khas to raise funds for the defence of Delhi from the armies of Ahmed Shah Durrani. In 1761, after the Marathas lost the third battle of Panipat, Delhi was raided by Ahmed Shah Durrani. Ten years later, the Marathas captured Delhi from the Afghans under the leadership of Mahadji Scindia and Peshwa Madhavrao and placed their puppet emperor Shah Alam II on the throne.
In 1764 Bharatpur State under Jat ruler Maharaja Jawahar Singh the son of Maharaja Suraj Mal attacked on Delhi and captured Red Fort of Delhi on 5 february 1765. Two days later, after taking tribute from the Mughals, removed their armies from the fort and the Jats took away the throne of the Mughals, called the pride of the Mughals, and the doors of the Red Fort as a memorial, and this throne is today enhancing the beauty of the palaces of Deeg. The doors are located in the Lohagarh Fort of Bharatpur.
In 1783 the Sikh Misl Karor Singhia, led by Baghel Singh, conquered Delhi and the Red Fort. Baghel Singh, Jassa Singh Ahluwalia and Jassa Singh Ramgarhia all allied with a 40,000 force and looted the area from Awadh to Jodhpur. After negotiations, Baghel Singh and his forces agreed to leave Delhi and reinstate the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II. The condition of their retreat included the construction of seven Sikh Gurdwaras in Delhi, including the Gurudwara Sis Ganj in Chandni Chowk.
In 1788, a Maratha garrison occupied the Red fort and Delhi alongside providing protection to the Mughal Emperor. Mahadji Scindia signed a treaty with the Sikhs where they were warned not to enter Delhi or ask for the Rakhi tribute. The fort came under the control of the East India Company following the Second Anglo-Maratha War in 1803.
During the Second Anglo-Maratha War, forces of the East India Company defeated Maratha forces of Daulat Rao Scindia in the Battle of Delhi; this ended Maratha control over the city and their control of the Red Fort. After the battle, the British East India Company took over the administration of Mughal territories and installed a Resident at the Red Fort. The last Mughal emperor to occupy the fort, Bahadur Shah II, became a symbol of the 1857 rebellion against the British East India Company in which the residents of Shahjahanabad participated.
Despite its position as the seat of Mughal power and its defensive capabilities, the Red Fort was not a site of an engagement during the 1857 uprising against the British. After the rebellion was defeated, Bahadur Shah II left the fort on 17 September and was apprehended by British forces. Bahadur Shah Zafar II returned to Red Fort as a British prisoner, was tried in 1858 and exiled to Rangoon on 7 October of that year. After the end of the rebellion, the British sacked the Red Fort before ordering its systemic demolition. 80% of the fort’s buildings were demolished as a result of this effort, including the stone screen that connected the pavilions along the fort’s river-facing façade, which was demolished. All furniture was removed or destroyed; the harem apartments, servants’ quarters and gardens were demolished, and a line of stone barracks built in their place. Only the marble buildings on the east side at the imperial enclosure escaped complete destruction, although they were damaged by the demolition efforts. While the defensive walls and towers were relatively unharmed, more than two-thirds of the inner structures were demolished.
Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India from 1899 to 1905, ordered repairs to the fort including reconstruction of the walls and the restoration of the gardens complete with a watering system.
Most of the jewels and artwork located in the Red Fort were looted during Nadir Shah’s invasion of 1747 and again after the Indian Rebellion of 1857 against the British. They were eventually sold to private collectors or the British Museum, the British Library and the Victoria and Albert Museum. For example, the jade wine cup of Shah Jahan and the crown of Bahadur Shah II are all currently located in London. Various requests for restitution have so far been rejected by the British government.
References
There is an interesting article in the Hindustan Times about clearing the nineteenth century buildings from the complex here.
The official site for the site with very brief entry information is here.
The Wiki site with comprehensive info is here and the history above is copied from there.