PURANA QILA

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Context: Archaeological Survey of India all set to begin  excavation at Purana Qila again.

Details:

• The excavation would be the third season of excavation at Purana Qila after excavations in the year 2013-14 & 2017-18.

About:

• Purana Qilla, the 16th-century fort, was built by Sher Shah Suri and second Mughal emperor Humayun.
• Padma Vibhushana Prof. BB Lal also carried out excavation works inside the fort and its premises in the year 1954 and 1969 -73.
• Excavations point to traces from the 3rd century BC, the pre-Mauryan period.
• The fort was the inner citadel of the city of Din Panah during Humayun’s rule who renovated it in 1533 and completed five years later.
• The founder of the Suri Dynasty, Sher Shah Suri, defeated Humayun in 1540, naming the fort Shergarh; he added several more structures in the complex during his five-year reign. Purana Qila and its environs flourished as the “sixth city of Delhi”.
• Built on the site of the most ancient of the numerous cities of Delhi, Indraprastha, Purana Quila is roughly rectangular in shape having a circuit of nearly two kilometers.
• The thick ramparts crowned by merlons have three gateways provided with bastions on either side.
• It was surrounded by a wide moat, connected to river Yamuna, which used to flow on the east of the fort.
• The northern gate way, called the Talaqui darwaza or the forbidden gateway, combines the typically Islamic pointed arch with Hindu Chhatris and brackets; whereas the southern gateway called the

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