Nauchandi Mela: Meerut’s fair between a temple and a dargah

The fair takes its name from the temple: Nav Chandi, the nine forms of the goddess, which in time came to be said as Nauchandi. By legend, Meerut was once Mayrashtra, named after Maya Danava, father of Mandodari, the future wife of Ravana; before her marriage Mandodari worshipped the goddess Chandi in the temple here, and ever since, it is said, a fair has gathered by the temple in Chaitra Navratri. Another tradition says the fair began as a three-day Navratri fair at the start of the Vikram Samvat era.

Opposite the temple rose the dargah of the Sufi saint Bale Miyan, and the fair became a festival for both communities. The name is old enough to have been given to a train, the Nauchandi Express.

By day the ground is nearly empty; the fair belongs to the evening and the night. It used to be said that it was the villages’ fair by day and the city’s by night.

The formal opening follows Holi: the Meerut Municipal Corporation announces it in March, for the second Sunday after the festival (4 April 2027, expected). The opening and the full fair are not always the same thing. In some years the inauguration has come first and the stalls have filled only weeks later, once plots were allotted, so check Meerut news before making a special trip.

If you are in Delhi or on the way to Haridwar, an evening at the fair can be added: come after dark, when the ground fills. The FCDO advises care in large crowds, where stampedes have occurred at some events. General advice: Is India safe. Holi itself, which sets the fair’s date, is on the Holi page.