History of Sunehri Masjid Chandni Chowk Delhi
Built in 1722, this was where the Persian king, Nadir Shah stood on 11 March 1739 to watch his soldiers massacre most of Delhi’s inhabitants (20,000-150,000, depending on whom you believe) and devastate the city in six hours Hat. At first call had gone well. The defeated Mughal emperor, Muhammad Shah, laid on feasting and fireworks to welcome Nadir Shah and his 200 servants and 4,000 horsemen, whom he controlled with threats to chop off noses and ears if they caused trouble. But when the Delhi mob reacted violently to the soldiers’ demands for free wheat and mutton, the conqueror took his revenge. Also Visit – Delhi Jaipur and Agra with Fatehpur Sikri Tour
A contemporary recorded: The inhabitants, one and all, were slaughtered. The Persians laid violent hands on everything and everybody; cloth, jewels, dishes of gold and silver … for a long time the streets remained strewn with corpses … the town was reduced to ashes, and had the appearance of a plain consumed with fire’. Two months later, Nadir Shah left Delhi for Persia laden with the royal jewels, the treasury and more, including the Koh-i-Nur diamond and the Peacock Throne. The poet Mirza Mohammed Rafi Sauda wrote movingly of the desolation: ‘In the once-beautiful gardens where the nightingale sang his love songs to the rose the grass grows waist-high around the fallen pillars and ruined arches. Shahajanabad, you never deserved this terrible fate! You who were once vibrant with life and love and hope, like the heart of a young lover’.
Ghantewalla’s sweet shop is on the same side. Its name means ‘bell’ because, one story goes, the royal elephant in Mughal processions would stop here and jingle his bell to ask for a sweet.
Across the road, the handsome Town Hall (1860-5) fronts a drop of British Old Delhi and an airy oasis. The roads on either side lead to tall, swaying palms surrounding the circular Mahatma Gandhi Park. Built as Queen’s Gardens, it is now a great meeting place for pink-robed sadhus (ascetics)—find them right at the back offering flowers and incense to shrines, massaging one another and listening to musicians. The keen can forge further back, crossing what was elegant Queen’s Road to the turreted castle of Old Delhi Railway Station, where teams of red-coated porters serve the always-overloaded crowds of passengers.
Back on Chandni Chowk, the western end has a more exotic flavour. Fatehpuri Mosque (1650), paid for by Begum Fatehpuri, one of Shah Jahan’s wives, closes the vista. The little kiosks in its outside wall are piled high with dried fruits and nuts, some in sacks, some heaped on trays. A portly merchant, dressed in fine white muslin, presides over each, portable telephone and calculator at the ready. Just before the mosque, Dr Vasdevabbot the sex specialist has his huge billboard to attract customers to his thriving and competitive trade. Also Visit – Delhi Agra Jaipur Luxury Tour
Turning right at the mosque, make a detour to Giani’s Ice-Cream shop straight ahead. Even if you are wary of the ice-cream the succulent hot cashews and the two sorts of hot halwa, nutty dhal (lentil) and gajar (carrot), are safe and utterly delicious. Back and right, along the mosque’s north wall, Delhi’s wholesale spice market is hidden through an archway on the left. Clues to finding it are first the mosque kiosks displaying fewer fresh walnuts more trays of nutmeg, peppercorns, chillies, ginger and turmeric, then the increasingly spice-scented air and the crowds of coolies loading heavy sacks onto carts blocking up the road. The market is pandemonium. Spice dust fills the air and brings on incessant sneezing. Merchants sit beside outsize weighing scales, eyeing buyers who lest a sackful of costly spice by prodding in a knife at random and tasting the contents. The splashes of colour are piles blood-red chillies and a confused hubbub of coolies who load and unload their strained backs and whistle to warn people in their Path to, out of the way, quick.
The relaxing way to reach the fort from here is by bicycle rickshaw to its entrance, Lahore Gate. Tickets are at the kiosk; avoid Freelance guides; open daily.
Shah Jahan reaped treble the income of Akbar and Jahangir and spent four times as much. The greatest Mughal builder, his Delhi fort, known as Lal Qila (red fort), is twice the size of Agra’s. It was probably designed by Ustad Ahmad (who may also have designed the Taj), with other architects and in close collaboration with Shah Jahan whose lifelong interest in architecture became an obsession after Mumtaz’s death. An obsession shared with a swing towards orthodox Islam and, by contrast, a personal lifestyle of considerable debauchery. Also Visit – Golden Triangle Tour Packages
The building, was probably overseen by two mastermasons, Ustad Hamid and Ustad Hira. On completion, it enjoyed its glory under Shah Jahan who lived within a precise court ritual. The best way to see it is through the eyes of his courtiers; for today, despite past glory and being built to a single design, it lacks the essential magic of the Agra Fort. Furthermore, the British tore down two thirds of it when they ousted the last Mughal emperor in 1858.
Lahori Gate from where the Prime Minister speaks on Independence Day, August 15 (it was here the Indian flag was first raised), leads into Chatta Chowk, a covered bazar for the elite. Here, the courtiers jostled for fine gold, jewels and silks. Today, Tula Ram, Goel and Mehra, the last shops on the right, are worth a look, but few others.
The Naqqar-Khana (royal drum house), the official gateway, was where the formalities began. Musicians, seated above, played in an important arrival with huge, deafening cymbals, drums and trumpets, while guards removed his weapons and announced his name. The ticket counter is here, for daytime visits and for the daily evening son et lumiere performed in English and Hindi (times vary).
Ahead is the Diwan-i-Am (public audience hall), a raised, colonnaded plinth. Here the emperor and his princes, ministers and courtiers assembled in strict rank for the day’s public business, while the royal women watched through jalis (latticed windows), and the public filled the courtyard to bring their requests and complaints before their ruler. An important visitor would approach with deep salaams and present offerings of gold coins and jewels or perhaps elephants and horses. He was then dressed in plush robes and took his allotted place. Also Visit – Delhi, Agra, Jaipur – Travel Guide and Information
The business of the day took about two hours and might include reading aloud reports from the empire’s outposts or hearing criminal cases and proclaiming sentences (executioners with hatchets and whips stood on hand to carry them out on the spot). Throughout, there was constant music to accompany acrobatic shows, dancing girls and parades of tigers, elephants and rhinoceroses.
The more private palace area lies behind, across gardens that were planted with roses and criss-crossed with cooling water channels. A string of six palaces runs along the east wall of the fort overlooking the now-distant Yamuna waters. When Shah Jahan inaugurated his new city in 1648, he arrived by river from Agra and entered through the river gate beneath Khas Mahal.
Starting on the right, the first palace is Mumtaz Mahal (Mumtaz palace). It is now the fort’s museum and worth a visit, although some of its fine paintings are on loan to the National Museum. Rang Mahal (painted palace) had a silver ceiling, stripped off by Jats. Here the Nahar-i-Bahisht (stream of paradise) flowed from the other palaces into the marble, lotus-shaped pool, cooling the stifling Delhi air and making dancing reflections in the jewelled and mirrored interiors. Indeed, water was a unifying and essential component of the palace interiors and the gardens. Francois Bernier’s description in the 1660s helps the imagination of today’s visitor to the arid Fort: ‘Nearly every chamber has its reservoir of running water at the door; on every side are gardens, delightful alleys, shady retreats, streams, fountains, grottoes… within the walls of this enchanting place, no oppressive or inconvenient heat is felt.’
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