Photograph of Fatehpur Sikri, India by Samuel Bourne, 1860s.

This photograph shows the Northern Palace of the Haram Sara but is populalry known as or Birbal's House. It is one of the largest and finest of the domestic buildings in Fatehpur Sikri, it has two storeys, and is profusely decorated with fine carving on the walls, pillars, pediments and capitals. In this photograph the main doorway is a later addition being western in design and the man placed near it gives a sense of scale to the building.

This photograph was initially part of the photographic collection held in the National Art Library. The markings on the mount are an indication of the history of the object, its movement through the museum and the way it is categorised.
The mount is green, it has a label with the title on it on the right hand side.

Historical significance: This photograph shows the Northern Palace of the Haram Sara but is populalry known as or Birbal's House. It is unlikely that Birbal (officer in Akbar's court?) actually lived here as the building was an integral part of the imperial Harem (area where women of the household resided) and is most likely to have been inhabited by Akbar’s two senior queens.

It is one of the largest and finest of the domestic buildings in Fatehpur Sikri, it has two storeys, the ground floor has four rooms and the first floor has two. The building is distinct because of the profusely decorated and carved interior and exterior. The walls, pillars, pediments and capitals have a mixture of both Hindu and Islamic motifs.

An inscription on the western entrance of a room on the ground floor confirms that the building was built in 1572 or 1582 ( the discrepancy is due to one of the digits being difficult to read).

This photograph shows one of the buildings at Fatehpur Sikri, a city built by the Emperor Akbar (ruled 1556-1605). Officially known as the Northern Palace of the Haram Sara, it is popularly known as Birbal's House. The building is one of the largest and finest of the domestic structures in the city. It boasts two storeys, a ground floor with four rooms and a first floor with two. Both the interior and the exterior have lavish carved decoration.

The British photographer Samuel Bourne lived and worked in India between 1862 and 1869. During this time he toured the Himalayas and travelled through the subcontinent, photographing its landscape, architecture and historical sites. He set up a studio in Simla with Charles Shepherd and sold his prints sold to an eager public both in India and Britain.

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