Birbal, though, was a colourful and influential figure in Akbar's court yet he could have scarcely occupied a house in the middle of the zanana. This building was definitely an integral part of the Haram Sara, its most probable occupants being Akbar's two senior queens, Ruqayya Begum and Salima Sultan Begum.

The building represents, at least stylistically, a conjoining of the two main architectural traditions in India -the Hindu and the Islamic, but there has been no attempt to fuse or synthesise these traditions. They are simply placed together in an elaborate medley.

The pilasters and brackets and parts of the chhajja deserve special notice. Each pilaster is finely carved with a pleasant geometrical pattern while the bases are typically Hindu, being cut with a deep semicircle with a fan-like halo around it.

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