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The city of 'Indraprastha' (''City of Indra'') (Sanskrit: इन्‍द्रप्रस्‍थ), a major northern city in ancient India that was the capital of the kingdom led by the Pandavas in the ''Mahabharata'' epic. It was located upon the banks of the river Yamuna and close to the modern national capital of Delhi.

When Yudhisthira, the eldest of the five Pandava brothers is given the kingdom of ''Khandavaprastha'', a region northwest to the city of Hastinapura, a land cursed with barren and arid soils, diseased and dangerous forests and famine. However Lord Krishna summons Indra, the king of the Devas to help Yudhisthira, who in turn summons the Deva architect Vishwakarman.
Performing sacred ceremonies to bless the land, Vishwakarman builds a glorious new city, which becomes the capital. Millions of people flock to this new city, and soon prosperity and health spread across Khandavaprastha, thanks to the perfectly pious rule of Yudhisthira and his brothers. After the Kurukshetra War, Yudhisthira, now king of Hastinapura retains control of his city.
Indraprastha was said to be 5,000 years old. Legend suggests that Indraprastha once stood where Purana Qila is today. A village called ''Indrapat'' existed in Delhi until the beginning of the 20th century; the village was levelled and the British city of New Delhi was made upon it. The excavations of the ancient mound of Indraprastha, capital of the Pandavas, located within Purana Qila revealed evidence of continuous habitation of the site for almost 2,500 years.
Since much of the historical record of ancient India is blurred, it is not known what happened after the Mahabharata epic. Indraprastha remained a major city for many centuries, from the time of the Mauryan Empire to the Gupta Empire in India, but became less significant with the rise of cities like Pataliputra, southeast of the river plains, which was the source of India's two most powerful empires. Indraprastha was probably sacked by Hun invaders after the fall of the Gupta empire.
Hindu monarch Raja Dhilu is said to have founded the ancient city of Delhi close to Indraprastha.^[1]

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References

1. http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/3440/books.html Swami Dayananda Saraswati, ''Satyarth Prakash.''

See also

★ Hindu mythology
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