FC- INDIAN HISTORY AND CULTUREPROJECT :

EXPLORING THE HISTORICAL PLACES OF INDIA IN A GROUP BY VISITING THEM AND EXPLAINING THEIR VIEWS AND EXPERIENCE

Made by : Group USection 5 Shymlal college (evening)

OUR PROJECT ON

• QILA RAI PITHORA

• QUTUB MINAR

QILA RAI PITHORA

• Qila Rai Pithora also known as Rai Pithora's Fort was a fort city built in 12th-century by Chauhan king, Prithviraj Chauhan. Chauhan Rajputs had taken over the city of Delhi, from Tomar Rajputs. It also incorporated, much older Lal Kot built earlier by 8th-century Tomar Rajput ruler, Anang Pal I. Qila is a Persian word meaning a fort or castle.[1] It was from the fort that the Tomar, Chauhan and the Slave Dynasty ruled over Delhi from 12th to 13th century.

Remains of the fort walls

• Remains of the fort walls scatters across South Delhi, visible in present Saket, Mehrauli around Qutub complex, Kishangarh and Vasant Kunj areas

HISTORY• In 1160s, the Chauhan rulers took over Delhi from Tomars, along with

it the fort city of Lal Kot, the first extant city of Delhi. Thereafter Prithviraj Chauhan whose capital was Ajmer in Rajasthan, enlarged the Lal Kot, which had large rubble walls and ramparts, and renamed it Qila (Fort) of Rai Pithora or Qila Rai Pithora. The combined fort extended to six and a half km, and city existed with the fort, while older Lal Kot served as the citadel.However, the Chauhan's didn't rule long over the city, in 1190s the Afghans started attacking. Though Chauhans defeated Muhammad Ghori in the First Battle of Tarain in 1191, a year later in 1192, his general Qutubuddin Aibak defeated Prithviraj Chauhan inSecond Battle of Tarain, ending their dynasty and in turn establishing Muslim rule with his Mamluk dynasty also known as Slave dynasty, the first Sultanate of Delhi. He also revived the older name of the city, Dihli. However, Aibak didn't extend or change the fort structure, it remained same through his early successors as well.

QUTUB MINAR• Qutb-Minar in red and buff standstone is

the highest tower in India. It has a diameter of 14.32 m at the base and about 2.75 m on the top with a height of 72.5 m. Qutbu'd-Din Aibak laid the foundation of Minar in AD 1199 for the use of the mu'azzin (crier) to give calls for prayer and raised the first storey, to which were added three more storeys by his successor and son-in-law, Shamsu'd-Din Iltutmish (AD 1211-36). All the storeys are surrounded by a projected balcony encircling the minar and supported by stone brackets, which are decorated with honey-comb design, more conspicuously in the first storey.

• The tomb of Iltutmish (AD 1211-36) was built in AD 1235. It is a plain square chamber of red sandstone, profusely carved with inscriptions, geometrical and arabesque patterns in Saracenic tradition on the entrances and the whole of interior. Some of the motifs viz., the wheel, tassel etc., are reminiscent of Hindu designs.

• Ala'i-Darwaza, the southern gateway of the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque was constructed by Alau'd-Din Khalji in AH 710 (AD 1311) as recorded in the inscriptions engraved on it. This is the first building employing Islamic principles of construction and ornamentation.

• Ala'i Minar which stands to the north of Qutb-Minar, was commenced by Alau'd-Din Khalji, with the intention of making it twice the size of earlier Minar. He could complete only the first storey which now has an extant height of 25 m. The other remains in the Qutub complex comprise madrasa, graves, tombs, mosque and architectural members.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCESSIDHARTH 8019Our project to Quila Rai Pithora was a difficult task many of the people living here by did not knew about the fort . It take almost 2 hours to reach the fort from saket metro station . When I reach the fort I saw a huge statue of Prithvi raj chauhan standing on the roof of museum . It was very beautiful. The remains of walls were scattered through out the area . But due to loss awareness of fort by people we could not know much about the fort. So we talked to Mr. Manish teacher about it then he said to visit Qutub Minar . Qutub Minar was in awesome place, a lot of tourist from different places of world can be found their, it was a great fun to visit Qutub Minar; we were very tired at the end of the day but it was great visiting the out historical places.

VINOD DHULL 8023• AFTER a little shower of rain it was a bright day. Our task was to explore Quila Rai

Pithora. We went there by Delhi Metro. We actually have to walk a lot to Rai Pithora as we get down to Saket metro station instead of Malvia Nagar. At the entry gate i saw a huge tomb with a statue of Prithviraj chauhan on a horse. It was made to look ancient but is not. It was actually made by DDA(Delhi Development Authority) 10 years back. It was a library. There was a huge wall surrounding the fort. The wall was built in a interesting manner. Initially big rocks were placed and on it some smaller one and in the last the smallest ones. The smallest rocks were around 12” length breadth and height .

• The fort was all green with grass and beautiful flower. We saw a well , it was covered with a net . It was so deep that even our torch light was not reaching there. Even the stone hit the ground after 5 seconds we drop it. We couldn’t get any knowledge about the fort as the lady of archaeological department present there dint know any thing about the fort. We could gather some knowledge about the fort only by the information stones placed there. We have to come back only with some pictures of the fort and our little knowledge gathered from the “information stones”.

Vinay Jain 8063• My experience was good. Rai Pithora is a nice place. This place talks about

the historical evens took place in India. From the engraved information stones I came to know about the historical importance of the quila. The quila has seen three battles been fought on him.

It was all surrounded by big walls and huge stones. It was all green and beautifully decorated with flowers. There was a tomb kind of structure, which is a library and on it a statue of Prithvi raj chauhan with his horse. It was not ancient. The librarian told us that it has been made by DDA around 10-12 years back.

I clicked some of our group pictures and we came back and gathered knowledge from internet. It was a nice trip to Quila Rai Pithora.

Vipin Kumar 8086• On 8th Oct I was very happy that I am going to Quila Rai Pithora and I am

going to learn something new about our history. I reached Rai Pithora Quila situated in Malvia Nager along with my group members. The quila is spread over a large area. I can see only broad walls made of big stones. There is an old well. A library has been built by DDA.

I could find some stones scripted with the historical information of the quila. From these scripted stones only I could know something about the quila. In the library I find a lady of archaeological department and tried to gather some knowledge about the quila but due to her poor knowledge she could not share any information. After about two hour visit I came back home.

Sivam Rai 8073• The Qutub Minar is a very old monument. This monument was built by

Qutub-ud-din Aibak. The structure of this monument was based on European monuments. Foreigners‘ come to see this monument as is very famous across the world. It recalls us the memories of historical wars. It is built at a higher level that time. The engineering is of a high level and the design is built by great designers of the estate. In today's time people study but they still cant made this kind of buildings, today people study the techniques as how and what kind of technology they use to build such kind of huge monuments.

I saw small students from different schools who come there to see Qutub Minar. I interviewed them and I find them so excited to know about the historical part of the country. My visit to QutubMinar was amazing. I have learned a lot from there.

Surya Kant Malpani 8006• According to our history project assigned by our history teacher, we started the

journey for two historical places in Delhi. Rai Pithora’s Fort and Qutub Minar, both of them are very interesting places. There was a statue of Prithavi raj chauhan and stones and some other things which is not efficient to show the history. It was the place where prithavi raj fought with Mohammed Gauri two times. There were so many walls made up of stone. There was no person who knows the history of this fort and we were feeling very bad by this fact. After some time we take path for Qutub Minar it was a very interesting place because many persons come there including foreigners. Qutub Minar acquired a very wide area. There was so many stone made monuments, drawings, pillar, painting, sculptures, and work of art. At that time, it is very difficult to think to do this but the Mughal Empire does this in a very good manner. There are many things which are efficient to show the history of that time. It is so amazing monument that the person who visited first time would like to visit again and again. One thing I like most that on the monument some Urdu words are embedded everywhere. The monument talks history of that time itself. I am very happy to see these two monuments which are very important fort and source of our history.