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Sunday, April 9, 2023

THE JAHANGIR’S GOLDEN CHAIN OF JUSTICE

 The Muthamman Burj, an octagonal building made of white marble (built by Akbar’ son Jehangir) inside Agra fort is famous for Jehangir’s Chain of Justice (Adl-i-Zanjir). The chain was setup as a link between the people and Jehangir himself. Standing outside the castle of Agra anyone was free to pullthe chain with sixty bells and have a personal hearing from Jahangir himself.

You like to know this trips Taj Mahal Tour from Delhi Airport

Mughal Emperor Jahangir was well known for his innovative policy of the ‘Chain of Justice’. According to legends, Jahangir had placed a long golden chain with bells on his palace wall in Agra. Anyone who had been subjected to injustice could come to the palace, pull the chain and make his or her complaint heard for redressal.

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The bell was real. When he became an emperor, the first thing he did was that he made a chain [with a Golden Bell] from the Agra Fort all the way to the Yamuna and it was huge. It was made of approximately 120 kilos of gold. The idea was that anybody who wants justice should ring it, and he will immediately get the attention of the emperor. If anybody ever rang it or not, I don’t know. There are contemporary travelers’ accounts that talk about how he [Jahangir] sits in his public darbar, which is where people come [for Justice] and that his decisions are swift and sometimes brutal.

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Emperor Jehangir is known all over India for his sense of justice, and loved by the public for that. Empress Noor Jehan goes on a hunt and accidentally shoots dead a washer man with her arrow. His widow, Rami Dhoban, comes to the palace and rings the bell of justice. When Jehangir learns that Rami demands his justice of "a life for a life", he puts himself forward to be killed by Rami. Eventually the episode is sorted out through his ministers, with Rami forgiving the Empress and her husband.

Private day trip to Taj Mahal and Agra Fort from Delhi