Dara Shikoh Library

The Dara Shikoh Library is one of very few surviving structures directly tied to Dara Shikoh, the scholarly eldest son and heir-apparent of Emperor Shah Jahan — a philosopher-prince celebrated for building bridges between Islamic and Hindu-Vedantic thought.

• Built around 1637 CE as his personal library and residence, the building stands today on the Kashmere Gate campus of Ambedkar University Delhi, and since 2023 it has housed Delhi's Partition Museum.
• Dara Shikoh commissioned Sanskrit-to-Persian translations of Hindu scriptures, most famously the Upanishads, rendered as the 'Sirr-i-Akbar' ('The Great Secret') in 1657 — a landmark of Indian intellectual history that later helped carry Vedantic thought to Europe.
• After Dara's execution in 1659 the building passed through many hands: it became the residence of Nawab Safdarjung, then the British Residency of Sir David Ochterlony, and later Delhi College, whose original book collection was largely destroyed in the Revolt of 1857.
• Its striking front verandah of sixteen tall circular columns blends Mughal red sandstone with a colonial idiom, and the layered story — Mughal library, colonial residency, Delhi College, and now a heritage museum — makes it a key node on any Kashmere Gate heritage walk.
• The Partition Museum inside documents the 1947 Partition through galleries of migration, refuge and resettlement.
• For vegetarian travellers the Kashmere Gate and Chandni Chowk area is full of pure-veg dining — Shri Hari Sharnam (thalis, no onion-garlic and Jain options), Bikanervala and Haldiram's.