Jahangir Mahal - Orchha, Madhya Pradesh, India - Castles on Waymarking.com

Jahangir Mahal is a palace that was exclusively built by Bir Singh Deo in 1605 to humor the Mughal emperor Jahangir who was a guest of the Maharaja for one night only. The palace is built in four levels with elegant architectural features of both Muslim and Rajput architecture. Its layout is a symmetrical square built in the inner courtyard of the fort and has eight large domes. It has a plethora of rooms with arcaded openings, projecting platforms and windows with lattice design work. The top floor roof of this Mahal is accessed through a steep stairway. It provides picture perfect views of the temples and the Betwa River outside the fort complex. The palace also houses a small archaeological museum.

The entrance gate from this palace, which was earlier the main gate and which has carved ornamentation, leads to the royal baths and then to an elegant small dwelling unit built within a garden in typical Mughal architectural style; this had been built exclusively for Rai Parveen, the female escort of the Raja Indramani (1672–76); her large-size portrait in a revealing and seductive attire adorns hall in this Mahal. She was a poet and musician. The building is a double storied structure built with bricks, rising to the height of the trees in the well tended garden called Anand Mahal. The garden is laid out with octagonal flower beds and has good network of water supply. There are niches in the Mahal which permit natural light to the main hall and smaller rooms.

The plaque reads

"JAHANGIR MAHAL - According to common belief Jahangir Mahal was constructed for Jahangir reception by veer singh deo (I). It is square in plan, with four bastions at each corner which end in a ribbed dome at the top, and have four kiosks at the corners of the base of the dome. The chhajja on the corners of the first storey is held by a series of elephant brackets at regular intervals on all sides. All the chambers of this palace had been decorated with paintings, the remains of which are visible only in a few rooms. The Jahangir Mahal is the culminating point of the evolution of medieval-indo-islamic architecture an example of harmonized imagination and organized execution. (Commissioner of the Archaeology Archives and Museums M.P. Bhopal)"

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Accessibility: Partial access Condition: Partly ruined Admission Charge?: yes Website: [Web Link]

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