The Palace [including bazaar gate and Aiyena Mahal, Junagadh]

Photograph of the Aiyena Mahal or Palace of Mirrors and the Bazaar Gate at Junagadh in Gujarat, taken by F. Nelson in the 1890s. The album is inscribed: “With best compliments from H.H. Rasulkhanji, Nawab of Junagadh (India)” and was formerly in the collection of Sir William Lee-Warner (1846-1912), who served in the Indian Civil Service and was a Member of the Council of India between 1902 and 1912.

Junagadh lies close to the important Jain pilgrimage site of Girnar Hill and the Ashokan rock edicts of 250 BC. The town itself has a rich architectural heritage, its most ancient sites being Buddhist and Jain caves in the environs of the Uparkot, a citadel dating from the 4th century BC. More recent monuments include the mausoleums of the state’s Muslim rulers, the Babi Dynasty, and civic and royal buildings dating from the 18th to the early 20th centuries which mix Gothic and local Indo-Islamic styles. This is a view of the huge gothic arched gateway leading to the New Bazaar, and the Aiyena Mahal or Palace of Mirrors, which lies to the east of the Old Palace. The gateway dates from the mid to late 19th century, when Junagadh was developed and improved by the Nawab Mahabat Khan II (r.1851-1882), who constructed a series of new palaces, public buildings and parks.