Figure 1: Khari Baoli (Chandni Chowk)
Chandni Chowk is very close to my heart. I had bunked classes to spend time in Chandni Chowk. I came to Delhi for higher studies and lived in hostel. Whenever I used to fell homesick, I used to run away from college/hostel to Chandni Chowk, sit there for hours, observe people, culture, streets and shops. Chandni Chowk always felt me like – “a home away from home”. There is something very special about Chandni Chowk, it keeps people and culture alive. I will keep exploring Chandni Chowk and keep telling stories of Chandni Chowk by capturing its “never ending traditional beauty”.
Chandni Chowk means different things to different people. I see in it centuries of history, as well as a vibrant contemporary culture. Chandni Chowk is of particular interest for two main reasons. Firstly, its street plan and major buildings are still mostly intact, which enables us to understand its layout and design. Secondly, it is still a living city. Though the lives of the people inhabiting it have changed over the centuries, the city’s markets, lanes and courtyard houses, to quite an extent, continue to be used as they were in Shahjahan’s time.
Figure 2 : Street of Chandni Chowk
About Chandni Chowk Market
Figure 3: Chandni Chowk Market
If you have a quintessential shopper and a foodie in you, you must have heard about Chandni Chowk. Delhi‘s oldest and busiest market is a delight for someone who knows the art of shopping. One of the oldest markets in Old Delhi, Chandni Chowk is Old Delhi’s main thoroughfare which is a chaotic wholesale market lined by hawkers and porters offering full medieval bazaar experience. It is an important historical site renowned for the availability of every kind of goods as well as food. It was constructed in the 17th-century b the Mughal ruler of India Shah Jahan. It is situated opposite the Red Fort and provides a view of the Fatehpuri Mosque.
Figure 4: Chawri Bazar
Crisscrossed by narrow streets with shops jostling for space, Chandi Chowk gives a feel of old Delhi shopping. Since the 17th-century era, this places is rightly called a “shoppers paradise” in Delhi. During the reign of Shah Jahan, there was a tree-lined canal running through its centre, reflecting the moon. Hence, the name “Chandni Chowk” came to being which means “moonlight place”. Shopping at Chandni Chowk is fun as the market is distributed in several streets and these narrow streets are inundated with vibrant varieties of clothes, perfumes, electronic items, jewellery, candles, idols of deities and lifestyle goods.
Figure 5: Kinari Bazar
The market deals in everything that shoppers might think to buy for oneself and as well as for home. As this is a wholesale market, one can get huge discounts on most of the items. These shopping streets is heaven for retailers too. Apart from shopping, this place is equally famous for its eateries, street food, and Indian snacks. It has been aptly said for this barrage of noise, colour and smell.
Symbols of secularism in Chandni Chowk
Figure 6: Sri Digambar Jain Lal Mandir
As you start the trail from the Red Fort, the red sandstone citadel of Shahjahanabad, you pass the Sri Digambar Jain Lal Mandir on your left. As history would have it, Shah Jahan had invited some Jain merchants to stay in the city and permitted them to build a temporary structure for worship. While he did not allow a ‘shikhara’, the carved tower-like superstructure characteristic to most Hindu temples, the post-Independence period saw considerable reconstruction. The temple is distinct, as it has influences from Hinduism, Islam and Jainism, and is one of the oldest and most well-known places of worship for Jains in Delhi.
Figure 7: Gurudwara Sis Ganj
Continue down the lane, the Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib built in 1783, stands witness to the Sikh resistance to the Mughal Empire, as it marks the site where the ninth Sikh guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur was beheaded at the orders of the emperor Aurangzeb for refusing to convert to Islam. Ironically, a tense political environment led to this structure alternating between a Gurudwara and a mosque in the years after it was built, with the British Empire judicial body finally granting the Sikhs worshiping rights in the early 1900s.
Figure 8: Central Baptist Church
Central Baptist Church, the oldest Christian missionary in north India. With all the other houses of faith nearby, it is strange that land should be acquired by a Baptist Missionary Society along this very stretch to erect a Christian mission, perhaps Christianity’s own, little bastion on secular street.
Figure 9: Fatehpuri Mosque
At the end of the road lies Fatehpuri Mosque, a 17th Century structure in red sandstone and marble with a little square fountain at the centre. After the bustle of Chandni Chowk, a strange calm pervades the mosque and at prayer time, one can imagine the chants resounding within the walls, calling of the faith together.
Bibliography:
- Liddle, Swapna. 2017. ‘Chandni Chowk: The Mughal City of Old Delhi’, Speaking Tiger; 1-176
- https://delhitourism.travel/chandni-chowk-delhi
- https://www.travelscopeindia.com/blog/down-sacred-secular-street-chandni-chowk-old-delhi/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Shahjahanabad_or_Modern_Delhi_1911_map.jpg
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Digambar_Jain_Lal_Mandir,_Chandni_Chowk,_Delhi.jpg
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ChawriBazar.jpg
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chandni_Chowk,_2008_(18).JPG
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Central_baptist_church.jpg
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gurudwara_Sis_Ganj_Sahib,_Delhi.jpg
- https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/Fatehpuri_Masjid_%284143074260%29.jpg/330px-Fatehpuri_Masjid_%284143074260%29.jpg
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Hi, I’m Sahil Raj…
Hi, I’m Sahil Raj…
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