Old Delhi (Shahjahanabad)

Although it's not in fact the oldest part of Delhi, the seventeenth-century city of Shahjahanabad, built by the Moghul emperor, Shah Jahan, is known as OLD DELHI. The original city walls spread for seven miles, enclosing the sprawling fort, Lal Qila, and the formidable Jami Masjid, or "Friday Mosque". Old Delhi's main thoroughfare, Chandni Chowk, a seething mass of hooting, pushing cars, tempos, cycle rickshaws and ox carts, was once a sublime canal lined with trees and some of the most opulent bazaars of the East. Today the city walls have crumbled, and houses and shops have long since spilled beyond the remaining five of the fourteen old gates.

On the west bank of the River Yamuna northeast of the modern centre, Old Delhi resembles an overgrown village of tight-knit communities, alive with intriguing contradictions and contrasts. Photographers huddled at the east end of Chandni Chowk using rickety equipment left over from the days of the Raj are overlooked by garish film boards and advertisements for sex clinics, while the bazaars in the back alleys have changed little since the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It's a fascinating area, but you'll need stamina, patience and time to endure the crowds and traffic.

• Chandni Chowk
  It is the nerve centre of commercial activity. The narrow lanes have kept alive the traditional workmanship which makes Delhi famous. A market place right from the times of Mugals, this market still hosts the decendants of royal chefs as also the famous Chudiwali gali and the parathe wali gali. Spend the most enjoyable evening in the Chandni Chowk.

• Chor Bazaar
  A curious bazaar behind the old ramparts of the Red Fort, which comes to life on Sundays to trade a mix of "secondhand" and allegedly stolen goods.

• Kinari Bazaar
  A colourful street set behind the guradwara on Chandni Chowk, and connected to the main road by Dariba Kalan, "the street of incomparable pearl", which is the centre for jewellers. The shops in Kinari Bazaar overflow with bright wedding finery, including garlands made of rupee notes, grooms' turbans, rosettes and glistening tinsel used by Hindus, Christians and Muslims in vivid and noisy marriage ceremonies. In October (the month of Ram Lila) the shops stock props for the annual theatre productions – bows and arrows, cardboard swords and fake heads for the evil nine-headed King Ravana.

• Naya Bazaar
  Spice market on Khari Baoli, near Fatehpuri Masjid, clouded with the fine dust of flour and spices, and heavy with rich aromas. The nuts, spices and dried fruits sold here are said to be the best in Delhi, and many are sold to wholesalers by the sack; weighed-down porters load their burdens onto ox carts which trundle off to other parts of the city through the mass of motorized traffic. The covered Gadodia Market, just off Khari Baoli, is a gathering place for wholesalers who weigh their goods on huge old-fashioned scales. Among the spices and condiments you can find aniseed, turmeric, pomegranate, dried mangoes, ginger, saffron, reetha nuts (used for washing hair and cleaning silver), lotus seeds, pickles, sugars, chutneys and edible leaves of silver paper used to coat sweets and cakes.

• Meena Bazaar
  A distinctively Islamic bazaar of cramped shops clustered around the base of the Jami Masjid, full of clothes, domestic implements and smells not found in Hindu regions of the city. Here you can buy burquas, dupattas, topis, caged chickens, bangles, kebabs, sticky sweetmeats and devotional pictures for shrines.

• Car Parts Bazaar
  South of the Jami Masjid, the stalls that make up this bazaar stock, or rather pile high, new and secondhand automobile parts from all models, ranging from speedometers and the all-important horn to complete engines.

• Chawri Bazaar
  Named after the Marathi word chawri (meeting place), this street, running west from the Jama Masjid, was once flanked by huge mansions which were destroyed by the British after the Mutiny. In the nineteenth century it was famous for its "dancing girls", who looked into the streets below from arched windows and balconies and beckoned men with enticing glances; they were moved out by the Delhi Municipal Corporation in the twentieth century. Today the shops specialize in copper and brass Buddhas, Vishnus, Krishnas, bells, lamps, ashtrays, masks and boxes. The long road, Nai Sarak, which connects Chawri Bazaar with Chandni Chowk, is lined with nineteenth- and twentieth-century buildings whose lower storeys are used for making and selling paper, and houses shops stocking educational books and stationery.

• Kalan Mahal
  A small market street further south of the Jami Masjid near the Kalan Masjid, Kalan Mahal is the gathering place for brass polishers, and also has stalls displaying intricately carved bone necklaces.

• Poultry and Fish Markets
  East of Kalan Mahal the air is filled with the unmistakable smell of fish. Piled high on lorries and stored in barrels of ice, transported between cramped stalls on the heads of porters, every imaginable kind of fish is traded here before finding its way onto plates all over the city. In between fish stalls, chickens lie cramped in stacked cages before being slaughtered and plucked. Head towards Netaji Subash Marg to get into the thick of the poultry scene, and watch out for the "cul-de-sacs" in the fish market. While most traders sleep at the back of their pungent patches, few visitors can stand more than half an hour in Old Delhi's smelliest corner.

• Digambara Jain temple and Jain Bird Hospital
  Delhi's oldest Digambara Jain temple, directly opposite the entrance to the Red Fort, at the east end of Chandni Chowk, was built in 1526, but has been modified and added to ever since, and remains a haven of tranquillity amid the noise and chaos of the main street. Though not as ornate as the fine temples in Gujarat and Rajasthan, it does boast detailed carvings, and gilded paintwork in the antechambers surrounding the main shrine to Parshvanath, the twenty-third tirthankara. You'll have to remove your shoes, and hand them over with your bags and all leather articles to a kiosk before entering.

• Firoz Shah Kotla
  It is the site of the city of Ferozabad built in the 14th century by Emperor Ferozshah Tughlaq. The famous 14-meter highly polished sandstone Ashoka Pillar carrying Emperor Ashoka's message of peace stands here. Next to a baoli (step-well) lie the massive ruins of a mosque which once accommodated over 10,000 worshippers; Timur (Tamerlane) is said to have been so impressed by it that it served as the model for his great mosque in Samarkand. Today, surrounded by large and busy roads, the gardens and their monuments lie almost forgotten, and few tourists stop by.

• Gauri Shankar temple
  Tucked behind fragrant mounds of marigolds, roses and jasmine blossoms sold on Chandni Chowk just west of the Jain temple, the large marble Gauri Shankar temple, dominated by its eight-hundred-year-old lingam, is Delhi's holiest Shiva temple. Devotees enter up a narrow flight of marble steps, flanked by pillars carved with chains and bells, that opens onto a spacious courtyard, always a scene of animated devotional activity. Inside, offerings for sale include bilva (wood apple) leaves, chandan (sandalwood paste), marigolds, red powder, rice, and cotton threads. The main sanctuary holds bejewelled statues of Gauri (Parvati) and Shankar (Shiva) standing beneath a silver canopy, and the ancient brown stone lingam resting on a marble yoni encased in silver and draped with silver serpents. Shrines to other deities line the south wall.

• Jama Masjid
  Jama Masjid is the largest mosque in India, and stands across the road from the Red Fort. Built in 1656, it is an eloquent reminder of the Mughal religious fervour. Its spacious courtyard holds thousands of the faithful who offer prayers.

• Red Fort (Lal Quila)
  Delhi's most magnificent monument, the Red Fort, was built by Emperor Shah Jehan, in 1638 A.D. Enclosed in this glorious Fort is Diwan-i-am, the hall meant for public audiences; Diwan-i-Khas, where private audiences were granted; Rang Mahal, the water cooled apartment of the royal ladies; the Pearl Mosque, a lovely, ornate dream in white marble.The Prime Minister of India addresses the nation from this age old Fort, on the auspicious day of India’s Independance.

• Red Fort Museum of Archaeology
  Red Fort, Delhi(Tel 23267961)
  Open: 10.00 A.M. To 5.00 P.M.
  Closed: Friday
  Display a collection of curios and artifacts from the Mughal period, including a manuscript copy of the holy Koran in Nasq characters.

• Red Fort museum of Arms & Weapons
  Illustrates the chronological development of arms and armour from the Mughal period till the first world war.

• Raj Ghat
  On the banks of the river Yamuna is the Raj Ghat where the father of the nation Mahatama Gandhi was cremated in 1948, soon after India attained it freedom.

Next...

• Central New Delhi
  
• South Delhi