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THE DAFTAR KHANA. Passing through the great quadrangle of the Dîwan-i-âm, the visitor arrives at the Daftar Khana, or Record Chamber, now adapted for a travellers' rest-house. This was Akbar's office, and is immediately opposite to his own sanctum, the Kwâbgâh, and the principal buildings of the Imperial Palace.

The description given by Abul Fazl and Badâyûni clearly indicates a building like the Dîwan-i-âm, enclosing a great quadrangle. Keene suggests that Akbar's first wife and cousin, Sultana Raqia Begam, lived here, but she was a Muhammadan. Miriam's family resided in the province of Ajmir, which adjoins Jodhpur. She might have been known as the Princess of Jodhpur.

It is something like the Mûti Masjid, but far inferior in design. The further corner of it opens into a small chamber, overlooking the courtyard of the Dîwan-i-âm, which is pointed out by the guides as the prison where Shah Jahan was confined. This may be accepted or not, according to the choice of the visitor.

There was a small engagement outside the city. The British troops and the whole of the European population were afterwards shut up in the Fort until the capture of Delhi. The Lieutenant-Governor, Mr. John Russell Colvin, died there, and was buried in front of the Dîwan-i-âm. The Fort

A covered passage connected the house with the Kwâbgâh, and also with another block of buildings of no special interest, known as the Girls' School. A staircase from the south verandah leads down to some interesting baths outside the south-west corner of the Dîwan-i-âm quadrangle, which were probably for the use of the Turkish Sultana.

The road now turns towards the right, through the Mîna Bazar, the old market-place, where merchants displayed jewellery, brocades, and similar stuffs for the nobles and others attending the court. A gateway leads into the great courtyard of the Dîwan-i-âm, or Hall of Public Audience, which, with its surrounding arcades, was for a long time used as an armoury for the British garrison.

In and around it are innumerable palaces, mosques, tombs and forts, each and all worthy of careful inspection; but I will only mention the Jama Musjid; inside the fort the Diwan-i-Am, wherein formerly stood the famous peacock throne; and the Diwan-i-Kas, at either end of which, over the outer arches, is the famous Persian inscription, "If Heaven can be on the face of the earth it is this!

Akbar was never persuaded to become a convert to Christianity, nor does there appear to be any ground for the belief that one of his wives was a Christian. The description already given of the Dîwan-i-âm at Agra will explain the functions for which this building was intended. The throne, or judgment seat, of Akbar was placed between two pierced stone screens in the verandah in front of the hall.

On the rising ground behind the courtyard of the Dîwan-i-âm there formerly existed a palace called the Salîmgarh. Before Jahangir's accession he was known as Prince Salîm, and tradition associates this palace with him. Fergusson, however, states that in his time an exquisite fragment of a palace built by Shere Shah, or his son Salîm, existed here.

Bernier's lively description, though it properly belongs to the Dîwan-i-âm at Delhi, will enable us to picture the scene in the days of the Great Mogul: