Jharokha

The gatehouse survives still as a witness to this grandeur: with its Dholpur sandstone façade, its delicate jharokha balconies and its fine fish-tail mouldings it is still a magnificent sight.

In Dhaka, Islam Khan built a scaled-down replica of Jahangir's imperial court, complete with a jharokhā.

They watch him from their jharokhas when he leaves the Atithi Palace in smartly tailored white clothes, bottlegreen or pink sash around his waist and a fancy saafa on his head.

Apart from residential buildings, jharokhas were incorporated into temples, mosques, Jain derasars or temples and step-wells, where they served as ornamentation to a building's elevation, functioned as shaded openings to let in air and light, and provided seating spaces on their ledges for a view of the world outside.