Taking the main hall first, this is an oblong building 90 feet long, 60 feet wide, and 35 feet high up to its cornice, having in each of its longer sides six tall deeply sunk arches containing a doorway below and a window above; in the short side are three similar arches, the middle one of these forming the main entrance. The interior is one large compartment, an uninterrupted space measuring 88 feet long by 24 feet wide, and 32 feet high, with a series of five boldly fashioned pointed arches projected across its width, thus acting as ribs to support the flat roof. So substantial are these transverse arches they are responsible for the erroneous theory that they were the ribs of a true vaulted ceiling, but, as a matter of fact, the entire roof rested on wooden beams, as the sockets for these are still visible, although the beams have perished. The other portion of this ‘Mahal’, the transverse building corresponding to the cross-bar of the letter T, is in plan practically of the same dimensions as the main hall, but differs from that structure in elevation as it is in two stories; it is also in a less formal style, as the doorways and openings are of the more usual kind, some of the latter being oriel windows of artistic design. The arrangements of the interior of the transverse portion, especially of the ground floor, are somewhat intricate, as this latter contains a cruciform gallery, one short arm of wmeh ends in an archway opening on to the main hall; there are also subsidiary passages not connected with the cross gallery and entered by a separate doorway. The upper storey, which overlooks the main hall, through a similar arched opening, in a simpler scheme, as it consists of two halls, one longitudinal the other transverse, the former being a rectangular hall, 70 feet by 40 feet divided into three aisles by two rows of pillars, while the latter is a smaller compartment and may have been a retiring room.
That the entire structure of the Hindola Mahal was intended as a combination of Audience Hall and Royal apartments is beyond doubt, but, on the other hand, the character of its construction is distinctly enigmatical, notably the incongruous bulk and strength of the walls which, it is presumed, were so devised in order to carry a massive superstructure, with however never materialized. One explanation may be that it was originally intended to add the ‘zenana’ place as another storey above the main hall, an assumption supported by the fact that the main and transverse halls are of much the same dimensions in plan; this project, had it matured, would have necessitated, a substantial sub-structure, although hardly of the elephantine proportions of that now existing. In any case, if such scheme were contemplated, it seems to have been abandoned during the course of construction, and the present transverse arrangement substituted, with the usual disconnected result such a change of plan would involve. Nevertheless there are features in the composition of the Hindola Mahal which are not wanting in dignity, as for instance the archways, both inside and out, together with the fine sweep of the interior, and while some of the details such as the oriel windows, have no little charm, although as an architectural conception it is on the whole decidedly more curious than beautiful.