Who said Hanoz Delhi Door Ast?
In the long history of medieval Dehli, this phrase has been
famously uttered twice, once by the Saint of the people Nizamuddin
Aulia and then again by the drunken sultan Muhammad Shah, popularly
known as "Rangeeley" for his colorful lifestyle full of liquor,
poetry, dance and women.
Legend has is that Aulia, while a great 14th century social
servant he was, had no time for people in power. This had dismayed
many a Sultan and particularly Ghiasuddin Tughlaq, who was wary of
the Aulia's popularity with both the Muslim, and surprisingly, the
Hindu populace of Delhi. Hence, Ghias was very angry with the
Aulia. Ghais left for the east in order to tame Bengal and received
some quotes that the Aulia had been disrespectful to him. So the
Sultan said that he was going to behead the Aulia when he reached
back to Delhi. Thw Auliya's patrons were worried about this but the
Auliya was unperturbed and uttered in persian "Hunooz Dilli Door
Ast" or Delhi is still quite a way away". The Sultan's Bengal
campaign was very successful and after this he began his journey
back to Dehli. After a few days one evening he reached near Dehli
and camped on the eastern bank of Yamuna, with his Dehli being the
current southwest Delhi on the western side of the river. However
it was here that the Sultan calamitously died because the "pandaal"
erected in his honor at a party collapsed on him. Hence, the term
"dilli door hai" is a colloquial in Hindustani for - do not attempt
to count your chickens before the eggs have hatched or there is
many a slip between the cup and the lip.
Doesn't work always though. Muhammad Shah was completely
enamoured with drink, music and women to notice that the once
powerful mughal empire was crumbling around him and was prime for
an attack by the Afsharid, Nadir Shah Qoli Beg. When prompted,
Muhammad Shah "Rangeeley" would utter the famous lines, hunooz
dilli door ast, but these were insufficient to stop Nadir Shah from
raiding Delhi and plundering it, killing more than 100000 of its
inhabitants in one day (14th-15th Feb 1739), and erecting mountains
of human skulls from decapitated bodies.