Janpath Market and Janpath Gujarati Lane

Janpath, a popular road/ lane or a market place in the middest of New Delhi, the capital of India. Janpath extends from all the way to the South End Road to the Connaught Place, the middest of Delhi. Where you have the south end road a residency of the most diplomatic and government residency, the other end of Janpath is the famous Janpath market towards the Connaught Place side which has been attracting the foreigners to India for years. Or to say where you have the New Delhi Railway Station, Barakhamba Road, Minto Road, Paharganj and Bangla Sahib Gurudwara on different sides of the central Connaught Place (C P), Janpath is on another. For years Janpath has been a center of attraction for the foreigners in India. On one part it has the historic Jantar Mantar, the monument to determine time with sunlight falling on the monument and on another portion, the famous Janpath market. Its the various types of shops at Janpath Lane that make it so special. From the start from the Connaught Place side, it has the oldest of the shops selling the unique traditional Indian items, garments, jewelry, brass sculptures etc. Inside goes a lane after 15-20 shops, which has recently developed as an export surplus or rejected garments market. You can find all sorts garments likes tops, skirts, jeans, trousers T-shirts etc. Don't be mistaken its in between these surplus branded garments what the vendors claim to sell you will also find rejected export garments and also fake branded fresh garments. The prices ofcourse will be cheap. With the hawkers shouting on top of their voices and a huge crowd in the lane, the place always seems to be a happening one. Further down the Janpath you carry on with one of the oldest shops/ market place in Delhi. A multi story building and then the small old shops predominantly selling garments and some home furnishings and handicraft items. Almost all the shop keepers having their production houses in other parts of Delhi or NCR(National capital region) to offer the foreign wholesale buyers to get directed to their main places. The prices are competitive and ofcourse compensating the quality of their products because of the huge amount of new foreign buyers and tourists visiting this place regularly. Further after a road intersection is the Tibetti market in the Janpath Market with the extension of the same old shops selling with mostly antique and vintage items like brass idols, wall hangings tapestries, old hand work bags, coins etc.

Its in the middle of these shops there leads a way to the west, a lane called the Janpath Lane (Jan path Lane) or the famous Gujrati Market. It starts of with a few even smaller sheds of approx. 2mx2m area, selling handicraft textiles like curtains, table covers, cushion covers, jewelry etc. and majorly gujrati wall hangings. However later with the end of the permanent sheds there leads a way to the temporary sheds with Gujrati community selling of various vintage products (some of them even listed on this website) including wall hangings, bed covers table runners, vintage dupattas/ scarves, ethnic lehenga cholis and the famous Indian ethnic sarees with lots of zari, sequin, bead work, zardosi work, in brocades, banjara items, tribal jewelry and many more. Its the Gujrati community mainly predominant of gujrati ladies who sell these products from the small sheds whole day sitting on the footpath to a road side. The place is an open area with vendors sitting only on one side of the road. The place is immensely populated by foreigners more than the Indian nationals themselves. You can see people from all parts of the world in this Gujrati Market/ Janpath Lane buying the beautiful wall hangings tapestries, sarees borders etc. and many more products of its class. What they sell is however the rejections and surplus of the export houses of this field. The flaws are however not easy to be noticed at that place and specially the way they show it to you and the words they camouflage it with. Price Negotiation is a word you can understand the meaning of, when you buy it from any of the vendors over here. However its in the end these vendors can sell you that stuff at any price cuz for all that they get something, they paid almost nothing. However its these products, the colors and the great Indian intricate hand embroideries that covers up for all.

Find most of the products found on the Janpath lane/ Janpath Market at this website without flaws and after quality checks and yet the same or lower than what you get after negotiating at the Janpath Gujrati Lane! Ask us more... write to us at shashankshr@yahoo.com

Written to the best of my knowledge and belief- shashank