INDRAPRASTHA, an ancient town of Pan dava, Kaurava, and Yadava times. Its ruins are pointed out half-way between Dehli and the Kutub. Indraprastha, and Dehli were about five miles apart, the one on the Junaim, and the other on a rocky hill to the S.W. ini the interior. In draprastha does not appear to 'have been a famous place in the history of Bu 4ha. The historians i: of Alexander and.iSeleucus yso make no allusion to the Iiid,rap itna, which, however, was one of the five p which had been demanded by Yudishthra as the price of peace between the rival Kuru and Pandava races, and which old Dhrita Rashtra gave away from his kingdom to his turbulent nephews. The princi pality assigned to them was a bit of forest land, then known under the name of Khandava-vana. The existence of Indraprastha in the 2d century A.D.
may, however, be recognised in the Indabara of Ptolemy ; and Dehli may possibly be found in Ptolemy's Daidala, which is placed close to Indra bara (perhaps Indrapat), and midway between Modura or Mathura and Batan Kaisara or Sthan eswara. The date of the occupation of Indra prastha as a capital, by Yudishthra, may be attri buted, with seine confidence, to the latter half of the 15th century B.C. Posterity can now hardly trace its site. The only spot that has any claim to have belonged to that ancient city, is a place of pilgrimage on the Jumna called the Negum bode Ghat, immediately outside the northern wall of the present city. Popular tradition regards this ghat as the place where Yudishthra, after his perform ance of the Aswa Aledha, or the horse sacrifice, celebrated the Hom, and a fair is held at the ghat whenever the new moon falls on a Monday. Local tradition, however, in this instance, con tradicts 'the Mahabharata, which states the Aswa Medha to have been performed at Hastinapura on the Ganges. The Negumbode Ghat may be the
spot where Prithi-raj celebrated his Aswa but it had acquired a sacredness from before the time of that prince, and was a place of resort where his grandfather, Visal Deva, had put up all inscription to transmit the fame of his conquests. Humayun tried to do away with the name of Indrapat, and substitute that of Deenpana. None but pedantic or bigoted Muhainmadans make use of this name. The common people either call it Indrapat or Purana Killa. Neither could Sher Shah have it called after him as Sherghar,—the voice of tradition is not easily silenced. The Purana Killa, as it now stands, is nearly rectangu lar in shape, and its walls are over a mile in circuit. In the interior of the Purana Killa is the Keeler Kona mosque, said to have been com menced by Hulnayun, and completed by Sher Shah. It has five horseshoe arches, decorated with blue tiles and marble, and is a favourable specimen of the architecture of the Afghan period. It is, perhaps, one of the most tasteful mosques in or near Dehli, and is remarkable for its richly inlaid work and graceful pendentives. The pre vailing material of the centre arch is red cut sandstone and black slate, and towards the ground white marble and black slate, the carving through out being very ornate. The two side arches arc composed of simple red-stone, picked out with yellow glaze and black slate finely carved, the outermost arches are still plainer in construction, the outer walls changing from red to grey stone. —Tr. of Hind. ii. p. 130-145. See Dehli.