Travel India

Shopping in Delhi

The old walled city of Shahjahanabad stands to the west of the Red Fort and was at one time surrounded by a sturdy defensive wall, only fragments of which now exist. The Kashmiri Gate at the northern end of the walled city, was the scene for desparate fighting when the British retook Delhi during the Mutiny.

West of here, near Sabzi Mandi, is the British erected Mutiny Memorial to the soldiers who lost their lives in the events of the uprising. Near the monument there is another Ashoka Pillar. Like the one in Feroz Kotla it was brought here by Feroz Shah Tugh-laq.

The main street of old Delhi is the colourful shopping bazaar known as Chandni Chowk. It’s hopelessly congested day and night, a very sharp contrast to the open, spacious streets of New Delhi. At the east (Red Fort) end of Chandni Chowk and north of the Jami Masjid there is a Jain temple with a small marble courtyard surrounded by a colonnade.

Next to the Kotwali (police station) is the Sunehri Masjid. In 1739 Nadir Shah, the Persian invader who carried off the Peacock Throne when he sacked Delhi, stood on the roof of the mosque and watched while his soldiers conducted a bloody massacre of the Delhi inhabitants.

The west end of Chandni Chowk is marked by the Fatehpuri Mosque which one of Shah Jahan’s wives erected in 1650.