HISTORY OF CHANDNI CHOW

The favourite daughter of Shahjahan, Jahanara laid the foundation of today Chandni Chowk which is the largest trading centre of North India. Also known as the moonlit square, it is located in the main street of Old Delhi. Situated opposite the Red Fort, the bazaar has several galis (lanes). Each of these galis represent a specialty of this market, for example the parathawali gali famous for it's parathas. Similarly there is the jewellery lane, textile lane and so on. The market place has historical land marks like- The Sunheri Masjid which stands next to the Kotwali (old police station). The Fatehpur Mosque, is located at the west end of Chandni Chowk and the famous Jumma Masjid is also situated nearby.

Chandni Chowk ( Moonlight Square) is a market that hubs with activity all through the year. The water in a pool reflected the moonlight and then flowed into a channel that flowed through the avenue. It is a crowded place and normally there is a maze of traffic that one has to negotiate almost every second. North of the avenue were vast gardens and one of them surrounded the glittering Jahanara sarai, which has a plinth as spacious as that of Jama Masjid. There was the palace of the Begum which today houses the biggest electrical market of north India, Bhagirath Palace. At the western end is the Fathepuri Masjid which was built by one of Shahjahan's wives and was the venue of public debates between Muslim theologians and Christian missionaries in the 19th century. It has a large number of galis(lanes) and a famous poet wrote about the lanes saying that " who would like to leave them". Each gali has some thing special about it for instance there is the paranthawali gali, where people could feed on the choicest paranthas. There are galis which house the wholesale textiles market and there is also a gali where jewellers have their shops.

The Beginning: How Chandni Chowk got it's name

When the famous Mughal Emperor Shahjahan shifted his capital from Agra to Delhi and established the city of Shahjahanabad, he had the majestic Red Fort or Lal Qila, on the banks of River Yamuna. Chandni Chowk was built in 1650 AD as an accompaniment to the fort. It was designed by Jahanara, the Emperor's favorite daughter. A large chowk ("square") with a central pool was built at some distance from the fort.
The story goes that on a moonlit night, the new complex and the pool lay shimmering; as a result, it acquired the name of Chandni Chowk- "the moonlit square".
Another legend says that the Chowk was named after it's silversmiths and there is a confusion of the word 'chandi' (silver) with 'chandni' (moonlit).