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Updated: July 20, 2025
A separate vault, called the Zanana Rauza, for the women of his family is formed by enclosing a portion of the adjoining cloisters. The mosque proper contains three chapels, crowned by domes. The principal one, in the centre, is screened by the façade of the entrance, the doorway being recessed, in the usual style of Saracenic buildings, in a great porch or semi-dome.
THE "SOMNATH" GATES. Before entering the Jahangiri Mahal, on the opposite side of the Anguri Bagh, we will pause at a corner of the zanana courtyard, where a small apartment contains an interesting relic of the Afghan expedition of 1842 the so-called "Somnath" gates, taken from the tomb of Mahmud of Ghazni in the capture of that city by the British.
A Persian poem inscribed on the walls of the Khas Mahal gives the date of its construction, 1636. THE UNDERGROUND CHAMBERS. A staircase to the south of the Khas Mahal leads to a labyrinth of underground chambers, in which the Emperor and his zanana found refuge from the fierce summer heat of Agra.
At each end of the mosque there is a set of five rooms for the mullahs who conducted the service; above them are galleries for the ladies of the zanana. Spacious cloisters surround three sides of the quadrangle; these are divided into numerous cells for the maulvis and their pupils.
The fathers not infrequently adopted the Hindoo pantheon along with the zanana. The pollution, springing from England originally, was rolled back into it in an increasing volume, when the survivors retired as nabobs with fortunes, to corrupt social and political life, till Pitt cried out; and it became possible for Burke almost to succeed in his eighteen years' impeachment of Hastings.
The style of the whole palace is much less ornate than the other zanana buildings, but it is always dignified and in excellent taste. It must be remembered that the severity of the architectural design was relieved by bright colouring and rich purdahs, which were used to secure privacy for the ladies of the zanana and to diminish the glare of the sunlight.
Though the Rajah was one of Akbar's most trusted friends, his palace would hardly be placed within the enclosure of the Emperor's own zanana and connected with it; nor is it likely that Akbar would provide Birbal with a residence so incomparably more magnificent than those he gave to his other two intimate friends, Abul Fazl and Faizi, by the side of the great mosque.
Though on a much smaller scale, it is of the same type as Akbar's splendid palace in the Agra Fort, and was evidently intended for one of the highest rank in the imperial zanana. The Hathi Pol and Adjoining Buildings. Close under Birbal's house is the main road leading down to the great lake now drained, the embankment of which formed the north-west boundary of the city.
We will now pass over to the river side of the Machhi Bhawan, and approach that part of the palace which contains the Dîwan-i-khas, or Hall of Private Audience, the Zanana and Mahal-i-khas, all built by Shah Jahan and occupied by him in the days of his royal state and sovereignty. They rank with the Dîwan-i-khas at Delhi as the most exquisite of Shah Jahan's buildings.
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