The Naqqar-Khana is the inner public gate of the Red Fort of Delhi. It is a large red sandstone pavilion that stands at the eastern end of a large open space where visitors entering from the Lahore gate would emerge from the Chatta Chowk bazaar street. The name of the gate, "drum house", refers to the musician's gallery on the top of it, from which music was performed five times a day. The popular name of the gate, Hathiyan pol or 'elephant gate' derives from the tradition that visitors would dismount from their elephants at this point, before entering further into the fort complex. On the inner side of the gate is a second large open space, and at its far end, the Diwan-i 'Amm.
Sources:
Koch, Ebba. 1991. Mughal Architecture. Munich: Prestel, 111.
Mukherji, Anisha Shekhar. 2003. The red fort of Shahjahanabad. Delhi ; Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tillotson, G.H.R. 1990. Mughal India. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 57-8.
