Datia Palace, Datia, Madhya Pradesh India

Datia lies on the track from Gwalior to Jhansi. In fact it is closer to Jhansi, which is in Uttar Pradesh, than to Gwalior. 26km to the north of Jhansi is the small palace town founded by the Bundela chief Raj Bir Singh Deo.

The specialty of this palace is that it is of 7 floor. However neither member from the royal family did ever lived here. Datia's Palace or the Satkhanda Palace is also called the Purana Mahal or the "Old Palace", Historian Abdul Hamid Lahori came to this city with Shahan Jahan on 19 November 1635. He said that the palace was nearly 80 meters long and was also this much broad. He said this as a very beautiful and strong palace.

This Palace was made by spending 35 Lakh Rupees (78 thousand us dollars) and it took nine years to build it. It is situated on an isolated rock on the western side of the city Datia. It represents Mughal architecture along with Rajput architecture. It is the biggest and most famous of all the 52 palaces build by Raja birsingh Deo and it can be seen easily from a long distance.

The palace mainly has four quadrangular part with a "Mandap" or the main center on the central point of the Palace. It is totally made using stones and neither wood nor iron is used in this whole palace.

The eastern part of the palace is most beautiful and the tombs contains beautiful pictorial drawings and windows are beautifully carved out of stones. The central tomb and the other two tombs forms an incredible view. the central tomb has a Lord Ganesha's Temple inside and there are Lord Durga's temple on both the entrances of the palace. On the first part on the main entrance there is a temple of the main house deity of Bundels and one the second part there's a Dargah. A 1985 cyclone destroyed some parts of the palace but still this palace one of the beautiful place to visit for those who are really interested in the Mughal and rajputana architecture and their beauty.