Jharokha Darshan

[5] Earlier, Akbar's father Emperor Humayun had also adopted this Hindu practice of appearing before his subjects at the jharokha to hear their public grievances.

[9][2] Jharokha is an easterly facing "ornate bay-window", canopied, throne-balcony, the "balcony for viewing" (an oriel window projecting out of the wall[10]) provided in every palace or fort where the kings or emperors resided during their reign.

[11] Mughal emperors during their visits outside their capital used to give Jharokha Darshan from their portable wooden house known as Do-Ashiayana Manzil.

Humayun had fixed a drum beneath the wall so that the petitioners assembled below the jharokha could beat it to draw his attention.

[2] Akbar's daily practice of worshiping the sun in the early morning at his residence in Agra Fort led him to initiate the Jharokha Darshan.

[14] The crowd of people assembled below the balcony generally consisted of soldiers, merchants, craft persons, peasants, women and sick children.

[15] As the balcony was set high, the king would stand on a platform so that people gathered below could reassure themselves that he was alive and that the empire was stable; even when the sovereign was ill.

[19] Nur Jahan, Jahangir's wife, was also known to have sat for the Jharokha Darshan and conducted administrative duty with the common people and hearing their pleas.

[8] Emperor Shah Jahan maintained a rigorous schedule during his entire thirty years rule and used to get up at 4 AM and, after ablutions and prayers, religiously appeared at the jharokha window to show himself to his subjects.

There was one particular group of people known as darshaniyas (akin to the guilds of Augustales of the Roman Empire) who were "servile" to the king and who would take their food only after they had a look at the face of the emperor which they considered as auspicious.

[9] It is also said of Shah Jehan that his Islamic orthodoxy was more than that of his father or his grandfather and that he was skeptical to carry out the function of Jharokha Darshan as it could be misconstrued as worship of the sun.

This functioned as a sleeping quarter for the king and also for worship and holding Jharokha Darshan,[18] and considered it an emulation of Hindu practice.

[25] On the occasion of the Delhi Durbar that was held on 12 December 1911, King George V and his consort, Queen Mary, made a grand appearance at the jharokha of the Red Fort to give a "darshan" to 500,000 common people who had assembled there to greet them.