The courtyard of Moti Mahal restaurant, Daryaganj Daryaganj
Just within the Dilli Gate of Shah Jehan's Delhi is Daryaganj. Shah Jehan, the flambouyant mughal ruler who built the Taj Mahal in Agra, made Shahjehanabad in (modern day) Delhi his capital city c 1640. In his time, Dilli Gate (or Delhi Gate) led to the even older city of Dilli, which is now situated at Mehrauli, Palam and other places south-west of Delhi.
Daryaganj was a commercial and residential area on the road that led from Dilli Gate to the royal fort. It still is, although the grandeur has worn off since S J's day. Intricate filigree banisters and brilliantly painted mosques appear and disappear among the soot and wires. There are parts of Daryaganj that resemble the aftermath of a bomb explosion in the 18th century. Some buildings are holding together by sheer will power. Daryaganj, in short, is paradise if you're into old things. It's also perhaps the best place a book lover can spend a sunday morning.
On sundays, book distributers and sellers from all over Delhi get together at Daryaganj to sell used books along about one mile of pavement in Daryaganj. There are books on practically every conceivable subject and in quite a few languages - all sold at happily affordable prices. You can also get fake and real old stamps, coins, bottles, stationery and other knick-knacks.
The best way to get around Daryaganj is on a cycle rickshaw. You can also take auto rickshaws, or can walk around. The distance from Delhi Gate to Jama Masjid would be a little over a mile.
Restaurants and breaks:
Tea - Aap ki Pasand
After a morning at the book bazaar you could get a cup of tea at Aap ki Pasand, a small connoiseur's tea shop across the road from the book bazaar. It's run by master tea taster Sanjay Kapur and although their main business is in selling tea leaves (for consumption and wholesale), they make you a cup of any sort for Rs 50. If it's a hot day, the iced lemon tea might make a soothing refresher. It's different here from elsewhere in Delhi, has no soda, or carbonated water, and the tang it loses for the lack of mint is more than made up by the taste of tea.
There is a very good map of Daryaganj near the contact information on this page at the Aap ki Pasand website.
Phone: +91-11-23260373, 23259373, 23287775
Address: Sterling House, 15 Netaji Subhash Marg, Daryaganj, New Delhi, 110 002, India
Credit card: Yes
Airconditioning: Yes
Lunch - Karim's
Opposite gate 1 of Jama Masjid, runs a lane. Ask around for Karim's: it is about twenty paces down the lane in a narrow by-lane on the left. The opening continues into a corridor and beyond it is a courtyard with ovens cooking meat and bread in the open. Karim's is a family-run business that claims to have catered to the royal Mughals. Most people don't have reason to doubt them.
Highly recommended are the butter naan-a sort of soft bread, rather in form like pita bread but more oval and very different in consistency; the burra kabab, or ribs of mutton baked in a tandoor until they're smokey and karim's special veg. - a delightful offspring of middle eastern and indian association. It's dates and paneer (a cousin of mozzarella cheese,) in a curd-based gravy with chilli paste and ghee. The mutton stew, korma (mutton in gravy) and sheermal, a type of bread - mildly sweet, golden and glistening on the top and with a hint of cardamom too are very good, as is practically everything else.
Phone: +91-11-23269880, 23264981
Address: Jama Masjid, Gali Kababian, Old Delhi, 110006, India
Address: Jama Masjid, Gali Kababian, Old Delhi, 110006, India
Bar: No
Credit card: Yes
Option of airconditioning: Yes
Option of airconditioning: Yes
Meal for two: Rs 300
Jama Masjid:
Like all Mughal buildings, this one too looms up suddenly, in all its magnitude, only when you're quite close. Shah Jehan, the Mughal ruler who built the Taj Mahal in Agra, liked a lot of show and his Jama Masjid continues to be the largest mosque in the country, accomodating about 20,000 people during Eid-ul-fitr, or the festival at the end of the month of Ramzan. He built this mosque around 1660 when he shifted his capital city from Agra to the newly built city of Shahjehanabad in Delhi. The Jama Masjid is a square structure, a large courtyard (almost 100 sq m) surrounded by a long verandas, with double-storeyed gates facing north, south and east. Above the eastern gate (opposite the structure in the picture, which is part of the main prayer hall facing west), is the royal balcony, where Shah Jehan would pray, with his subjects milling around in the courtyard below.
Jama Masjid:
Like all Mughal buildings, this one too looms up suddenly, in all its magnitude, only when you're quite close. Shah Jehan, the Mughal ruler who built the Taj Mahal in Agra, liked a lot of show and his Jama Masjid continues to be the largest mosque in the country, accomodating about 20,000 people during Eid-ul-fitr, or the festival at the end of the month of Ramzan. He built this mosque around 1660 when he shifted his capital city from Agra to the newly built city of Shahjehanabad in Delhi. The Jama Masjid is a square structure, a large courtyard (almost 100 sq m) surrounded by a long verandas, with double-storeyed gates facing north, south and east. Above the eastern gate (opposite the structure in the picture, which is part of the main prayer hall facing west), is the royal balcony, where Shah Jehan would pray, with his subjects milling around in the courtyard below.
Climbing up to the minarets of the mosque is rewarding for the view. The mosque complex can be reached by the rough and precarious stairways running up to each of the three gates. You will have to leave your shoes outside, for which it makes sense to take a receipt. And you must have your legs covered, or can hire a lungi (about two metre of cloth) to tie around your waist while you're within the mosque compound.
Camera fees: Rs 200
Moti Mahal:
Started in 1947, Moti Mahal is alleged to have invented the tandoori chicken and other mughlai delicacies. Although this restaurant was at one time very popular for its selection of tandoori fowl, which included partridges (or buh-tehr in hindi), the joint seems to have lost its spark over the past couple of decades, when Delhi has seen restaurants giving better value for money on all counts. If you've been trudging around Daryaganj though, Moti Mahal is probably worth a visit. The people are warm and the huge open courtyard and ample air-conditioned space are definitely a treat away from the jostling madness of Daryaganj.
Phone: +91-11-23273011, 23273661
Address: Netaji Subhash Marg, Daryaganj
Option of airconditioning: Yes
Meal for two: Rs 600
Shiv Kachori Bhandar:
There is a small street food place in Daryaganj, on the same side of the road as Moti Mahal restaurant and Golcha Cinema, Shiv Kachori bhandar is near the crossing where the road turns left to the Jama Masjid. They sell kachoris (similar to pooris, made of flour and fried with a stuffing of pulses) alongwith aloo ki subzi (spicy potato stew). The kachoris here are freshly made and very popular.
Cost for 4 kachoris: Rs 7
Seating: No
Daryaganj:
In Hindustani (a hybrid between Urdu and Hindi) darya means river, or channel and ganj could mean either market or town. Daryaganj is the neighbourhood of the main street leading to the Dilli Gate (Delhi Gate) of Shahjehanabad, mughal ruler Shah Jehan's new capital city built in the 17th century AD. Shahjehanabad, with its headquarters at the Lal Qila (Red Fort), was surrounded by a high wall interrupted at fourteen places by massive gates. Most of the wall and gates were destroyed during the first war of independence, fought against the British in 1847, and in subsequent skirmishes.
View Larger Map
A note about the map: The road marked as Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg is actually called by that name only south of Delhi Gate. North of Delhi Gate (follow red line till Astha Hospital) the road is called Netaji Subhash Road and it continues till the Red Fort just north of Daryaganj.
Click here for a flickr slideshow of Jama Masjid
Click here for more restaurants in Daryaganj
Click here for more to do on Sunday
Click here for more information on Jama Masjid, including festivals and photography rules
Click here for more restaurants in Daryaganj
Click here for more to do on Sunday
Click here for more information on Jama Masjid, including festivals and photography rules
Click here for security and related information
