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Medieval And Colonial Capital Cities Of DelhiDESCRIPTIONhorses, elephants and camels, store rooms for grains, perfumes, medicine, furniture, candles, palanquins, tents,guns, crockery, and utensils. The treasury and record office, the kitchen and bakery, all formed part of thisensemble.Each mansion also had its own khar‐khana (workshop) where articles of clothing, carpets, gold work andembroidery were produced. Boatmen and finely crafted boats also formed part of the establishment. From theinner court facing the naqqar‐khana gateway, another well guarded arched gateway led to the inner sanctum ofthe mansion. It led to the diwan‐khana or the baitak‐khana (drawing room) where guests were received andentertained. It was walled off from the private sections of the house, that were approached through a guardedgateway on the west. A gateway to the east would open up into a char‐bagh garden, with a barahdari (twelvearched/ pillared pavilion) set in the middle of the stone paved tank in which fountains played. Bridges led to thepavilion either from the east and west or form the north and south. In the more elaborate mansions, four stonepaved causeways with water channels running through the middle, divided the garden into four parts.The ladies’ wing had beautiful gardens, airy residential pavilions, shish mahals (rooms decorated with smallmirrors) and the khana (basement rooms) which provided refuge from the heat. The family mosque was usuallyto the west and the library was most often at a distance from the diwan‐khana.HavelisDotted across the city are havelis, which are more like town houses. Due to social norms ofa joint family system, large houses were built, introvert in character. These houses were built with high plinth andfor entry by a short flight of steps in order to ensure privacy. The height of the plinth increased as the width of theaccess lane narrowed down. The dictates of privacy were so strong that the roof lines of the buildings wereinvariably non‐uniform in silhouette. The degree of richness in detail and ornamentation could set the houseapart. The street picture was almost a terrace development, but maintaining distinctly separate identities.The first floor of most of the houses projected over streets, providing balconies with delicate semi‐transparentbalustrades. Sometimes the balconies of two opposing houses were connected to form enclosures of space alongvertical plane. Considerable homogeneity in the moldings of brackets and balustrades existed in a katra or kucha.It is possible that local craftsmanship ensured the continuity in tradition.31‐07‐2012 INTACH, Delhi Chapter 33