Kharbuja Mahal, Dhar, Madhya Pradesh India

A "Kharbuja" is a melon and the palace got its name from its domes which looked like large melons. Apart from their aesthetic appeal and conforming to a typical Islamic architectural mode, they also kept their buildings cool, allowing hot air from the rooms to rise inside the dome and away from the living spaces. There it would be radiated away from the surface of the dome.

This is a double-storeyed building with seven rooms on the lower floor, presumably used for the more formal encounters, and four private rooms on the upper floor. Mughal royalty stayed here and it was probably built in the 16th century, the Mughal period.

On the Marathas succeeding the Mughals, this place was plastered and decorated with murals. When the Maratha general, Raghoba Dadoo, escaped from Pune, in 1778, he hid here. He was an uncle of the Peshwa ruler Mahadev Rao I. His wife, Anandi Bai gave birth to a boy who, later on, became Peshwa Baji RaoII. Though constructed in Mughal style, the Kharbuja Mahal contains Rajput influences which are seen in the niches and windows.

From the battlements of the Fort there are superb views of the town spreading at the feet of its forbidding walls. One gets the distinct impression that the town clustered around the fort like chickens gathered around a mother hen!