Much like modern offices, Daftarkhana was built in 1574
as a record room for the king, where files and important documents were
kept. Abul Fazl has mentioned it in his work, Ain-i-Akbari. The
rectangular building stands on a high platform and has façades on
all four sides. The northern façade is most outstanding with six
pair of tall double columns with bracketed and a merlon pattern
surrounding its roof. There is a room inside with three doorways to its
north and beautiful tracery work in red sand stone in the arched windows
above the lintels to its south.
The walls of the room have three deeply recessed arches surrounded by
two superimposed single arches on the other two sides. There is a small
projecting balcony in front of the central window supported by corbelled
brackets. Near Daftar khana, one can also see the remnants of cloisters
and buildings that were also used as offices such as those of
Makhtabkhana or 'palace of writing'. The Makhtab khana was used as the
translation bureau and various texts were translated here into Hindi,
Persian and Sanskrit languages.
Read about the daftar Khana at Fatehpur Sikri,
India.