Sambhal

History

Sambhal is identified as Shambhala, a village which is mentioned as the birthplace of Kalki, the tenth and last incarnation of Vishnu, in the Mahabharata and the Hindu Puranas such as the Skanda Purana, Bhavishya Purana and later Kalki Purana (the city is also home to a "Shri Kalki Vishnu Mandir"). This was borrowed into the Buddhist mythology of Tibetan Buddhism where it is described as a mythological kingdom and a pure land beyond the Himalayas from where the future Maitreya will emerge. According to Ibn Battuta, Toghon Temür the last Yuan dynasty emperor of China had sent an embassy to the Sultan of Delhi Muhammad bin Tughluq, requesting permission to rebuild a Buddhist temple at Sambhal, which at the time attracted pilgrims from Tibet. Sambhal has been an urban center for hundreds of years and was a prominent town during the medieval period. Two legendary battles between Prithviraj Chauhan and Ghazi Saiyyad Salar Masud are claimed to have taken place here. At the time under local rulers, in the 13th and 14th-centuries it would go on to become a part of the Delhi Sultanate, first under Qutb ud-Din Aibak and later under Firuz Shah Tughlaq. Later it was a capital of the Lodi dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate under Sikandar Lodi for four years in the 15th-century. A folio from the Baburnama, depicts an award ceremony in Sultan Ibrahim Lodi's court before an expedition to Sambhal in the early 16th-century. After the collapse of the Delhi Sultanate, the city fell to the Mughals under Babur, briefly serving as the capital of the new empire. Babur is also claimed to have built a mosque here which is still extant. The city would later be governed by his son Humayun. After the death of Babur, his domain was divided among his sons, consequently Sambhal was given to Askari…

Most-observed species

• Rose-ringed Parakeet

  Psittacula krameri (Scopoli, 1769) · Aves
  8
• Red-vented Bulbul

  Pycnonotus cafer (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  8
• Ashy Prinia

  Prinia socialis Sykes, 1832 · Aves
  8
• Rock Pigeon

  Columba livia J.F.Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  8
• Black Kite

  Milvus migrans (Boddaert, 1783) · Aves
  8
• Large-billed Crow

  Corvus macrorhynchos Wagler, 1827 · Aves
  7
• Common Myna

  Acridotheres tristis (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  7
• White-throated Kingfisher

  Halcyon smyrnensis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  7

Most recent

• M 3.7 — 2007-11-08
  5 km SSE of Nihtaur, India
• M 4.2 — 2004-04-07
  7 km SW of Amroha, India