Daulat Khana is one of the monuments of
Fatehpur Sikri, the magnificent city built by
Akbar the Great in the 16th century. Literally, the Abode of Fortune, the Daulat Khana was Akbar’s private quarters. It overlooked the palace of his Turkish Queen. The Daulat Khana housed the imperial library and sleeping quarters. It encompasses a series of buildings decorated with intricately carved stone screens, elaborate brackets, broad attic and beautifully carved columns. The library room on the ground floor had a rich collection of 50,000 manuscripts. Akbar often had them read out to him, as he himself was illiterate. The emperor also had a resting area on the same floor. The sleeping quarters, Khwabgah, was on the second floor, decorated with Persian insciptions.
