Delhi,[b] officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India

containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the
west, or beyond its right bank, Delhi shares borders with the state of Uttar Pradesh in the east and
with the state of Haryana in the remaining directions. Delhi became a union territory on 1 November
1956 and the NCT in 1995.[22] The NCT covers an area of 1,484 square kilometres (573 sq mi).[4]
According to the 2011 census, Delhi's city proper population was over 11 million,[7][23] while the
NCT's population was about 16.8 million.[9]

The topography of the medieval fort Purana Qila on the banks of the river Yamuna matches the
literary description of the citadel Indraprastha in the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata; however,
excavations in the area have revealed no signs of an ancient built environment. From the early 13th
century until the mid-19th century, Delhi was the capital of two major empires, the Delhi Sultanate
and the Mughal Empire, which covered large parts of South Asia. All three UNESCO World Heritage
Sites in the city, the Qutub Minar, Humayun's Tomb, and the Red Fort, belong to this period. Delhi
was the early centre of Sufism and Qawwali music. The names of Nizamuddin Auliya and Amir
Khusrau are prominently associated with it. The Khariboli dialect of Delhi was part of a linguistic
development that gave rise to the literature of Urdu and later Modern Standard Hindi. Major Urdu
poets from Delhi include Mir Taqi Mir and Mirza Ghalib. Delhi was a notable centre of the Indian
Rebellion of 1857. In 1911, New Delhi, a southern region within Delhi, became the capital of the
British Indian Empire. During the Partition of India in 1947, Delhi was transformed from a Mughal
city to a Punjabi one, losing two-thirds of its Muslim residents, in part due to the pressure brought to
bear by arriving Hindu and Sikh refugees from western Punjab.[24] After independence in 1947, New
Delhi continued as the capital of the Dominion of India, and after 1950 of the Republic of India.

Delhi's urban agglomeration, which includes the satellite cities Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Gurgaon,
Noida, Greater Noida and YEIDA city located in an area known as the National Capital Region (NCR),
has an estimated population of over 28 million, making it the largest metropolitan area in India and
the second-largest in the world (after Tokyo).[25] Delhi ranks fifth among the Indian states and
union territories in human development index,[26] and has the second-highest GDP per capita in
India (after Goa).[12] Although a union territory, the political administration of the NCT of Delhi
today more closely resembles that of a state of India, with its own legislature, high court and an
executive council of ministers headed by a chief minister. New Delhi is jointly administered by the
federal government of India and the local government of Delhi, and serves as the capital of the
nation as well as the NCT of Delhi. Delhi is also the centre of the National Capital Region, which is an
"interstate regional planning" area created in 1985.[27][28] Delhi hosted the inaugural 1951 Asian
Games, the 1982 Asian Games, the 1983 Non-Aligned Movement summit, the 2010 Men's Hockey
World Cup, the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the 2012 BRICS summit, the 2023 G20 summit, and
was one of the major host cities of the 2011 and 2023 Cricket World Cups.

Toponym
There are a number of myths and legends associated with the origin of the name Delhi. One of them
is derived from Dhillu or Dilu, a king who built a city at this location in 50 BCE and named it after
himself.[29][30][31] Another legend holds that the name of the city is based on the Prakrit word dhili
(loose) and that it was used by the Tomaras to refer to the city because the iron pillar of Delhi had a
weak foundation and had to be moved.[31] According to Panjab Notes and Queries, the name of the
city at the time of King Prithviraj was dilpat, and that dilpat and dilli are probably derived from the
old Hindi word dil meaning "eminence". The former director of the Archaeological Survey of India,
Alexander Cunningham, mentioned that dilli later became dihli/dehli.[32] Some suggest the coins in
circulation in the region under the Tomaras were called dehliwal.[33] According to the Bhavishya
Purana, King Prithiviraja of Indraprastha built a new fort in the modern-day Purana Qila area for the
convenience of all four castes in his kingdom. He ordered the construction of a gateway to the fort
and later named the fort dehali.[34] Some historians believe that Dhilli or Dhillika is the original
name for the city while others believe the name could be a corruption of the Hindustani words
dehleez or dehali—both terms meaning "threshold" or "gateway"—and symbolic of the city as a
gateway to the Gangetic Plain.[35][36]