Chandni Chowk
area in Delhi
Chandni Chowk (meaning "Moonlight Square") is a street market square located in Old Delhi, India. One of the oldest and busiest markets in Delhi, the Mughal-era Red Fort straddles the eastern fringes of Chandni Chowk. It was built in 1650 by the Mughal Emperor, Shah Jahan, and designed by his daughter, Jahanara. The street spanning the market was historically divided by canals, engineered to reflect moonlight. These canals have since been closed and destroyed following British occupation, leaving behind a transformed urban landscape predisposed to congestion and chaos. It remains one of India's largest wholesale markets.
History
The market's history dates to the founding of the capital city of Shahjahanabad when Emperor Shah Jahan established the Red Fort on the banks of the Yamuna River, hemming his new capital from the east.
Original Chandni Chowk
The original Chandni Chowk, a half-moon-shaped square, was situated before the Townhall, the latter of which itself was constructed by the colonial administration following British victory in the 1857 Rebellion; the reflection of the square used to shimmer in the moonlit water pool located at the front. A shallow water channel, whose source was the Yamuna, ran through the middle of the straight street now referred to as the Chandni Chowk bazaar, with roads and shops on either side of the channel. This road had three bazaars.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3236763. Authority coordinates are 28.656, 77.234. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1650 and 1857.
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This entry incorporates text from “Chandni Chowk” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.