Gallery
Description
Property Name: Diwan-i Aam
Inventory No: 91-5619-2
Date of infill of the inventory form: 2009-06-10
Country (State party): India
Province: Uttar Pradesh
Town: Fatehpur Sikri
Geographic coordinates: 27° 5′ 50.4″ N
77° 40′ 0.21″ E
Historic Period: 16th century, 2nd half
Year of Construction:
Style: Mughal
Original Use: Palace
Current Use: Touristic
Architect: Unknown
Significance
The Diwan-i Aam (Public Audience Hall) was the place where Akbar would hear petitions from memebers of the public. It consists of a small pavillion, built of red sandstone, located in a position facing a large courtyard with colonnades on all sides. Akbar’s throne, with its elegantly carved red sandstone screens, is positioned at the center of its back.
Selection Criteria
vi. to be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance
State of Preservation
The hall was restored by Lord Curzon, while the inlay work of the throne recess and the plaques of the arch to the west side of the throne were restored by the Florentine artist, Mennegatti.
References
Smith, Edmund W. 1985 (Reprint of 1894). The Moghul Architecture of Fathpur-Sikri, Volume III. Delhi, India : Caxton.
Asher, Catherine. 1992. The New Cambridge History of India: Architecture of Mughal India. Cambridge University Press, 59-61.
Tillotson, G.H.R. 1990. Mughal India. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 106.
Rizvi, Saiyid Athar Abbas. Fathpur-Sikri. Bombay: Taraporevala, 1975.
S. A. A. Rizvi and V. Flynn: Fathpur Sikri (Bombay, 1975)
Ed. Zeenut Ziad Foreword by Milo Cleveland Beach, The Magnificient Mughals, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2002