The was originally a

Mughal Mughal or Moghul may refer to: Related to the Mughal Empire * Mughal Empire of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries * Mughal dynasty * Mughal emperors * Mughal people, a social group of Central and South Asia * Mughal architecture * Mug ...

place where princes store "gifts and emblems of honor that they received for their posterity ... an archive of objects whose origin and receipt embodied his status and honor" The term is of

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

origin that literally translates as "treasure house". Modern toshakhanas exist in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Modern usage

India

Under

British colonial rule The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts establish ...

, officials of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

were not allowed to accept

diplomatic gift A diplomatic gift is a gift given by a :diplomat, politician or leader when visiting a foreign country. Usually the gift is reciprocated by the host. The use of diplomatic gifts dates back to the ancient world and givers have competed to outdo e ...

s, often weapons or jewels, known as '' khilat'', from Indian or Middle Eastern rulers and their subjects. When procedure required that the officials received such a ''khilat'', the official would deposit it in the company's treasury (toshakhana). The objects were later used for exchange gifts with other rulers, when it was deemed appropriate to enter an exchange of khilat. The records of a 1930s

toshakhana at

Bushire Bushehr (; ) is a port city in the Central District of Bushehr County, Bushehr province, Iran, serving as capital of the province, the county, and the district. Etymology The roots of the name "Bushehr" are uncertain. It is unlikely that it ...

show that weapons and ammunition were kept in bulk for giving to the

Trucial Coast The Trucial States, also known as the Trucial Coast, the Trucial Sheikhdoms, or Trucial Oman, was a group of tribal confederations to the south of the Persian Gulf (southeastern Arabia) whose leaders had signed protective treaties, or truces ...

sheikhs. Two particularly rare items kept in the toshakhana of the

Golden Temple The Golden Temple is a gurdwara located in Amritsar, Punjab, India. It is the pre-eminent spiritual site of Sikhism. It is one of the Holy place, holiest sites in Sikhism, alongside the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur in Kartarpur, Pakistan, ...

are a richly bejeweled canopy, and a chandoa (a diamond-encrusted piece of cloth hung over the

Guru Granth Sahib The Guru Granth Sahib (, ) is the central holy religious scripture of Sikhism, regarded by Sikhs as the final, sovereign and eternal Guru following the lineage of the ten human gurus of the religion. The Adi Granth (), its first rendition, w ...

). The cost of the artefacts was pegged at Rs 200 crore. A present from the

Nizam Nizam of Hyderabad was the title of the ruler of Hyderabad State ( part of the Indian state of Telangana, and the Kalyana-Karnataka region of Karnataka). ''Nizam'' is a shortened form of (; ), and was the title bestowed upon Asaf Jah I ...

Kingdom of Hyderabad Hyderabad State () was a princely state in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan region of south-central India with its capital at the city of Hyderabad. It is now divided into the present-day state of Telangana, the Kalyana-Karnataka region of Karnata ...

to Maharaja

Ranjit Singh Ranjit Singh (13 November 1780 – 27 June 1839) was the founder and first maharaja of the Sikh Empire, in the northwest Indian subcontinent, ruling from 1801 until his death in 1839. Born to Maha Singh, the leader of the Sukerchakia M ...

was reportedly considered too lavish a gift and was sent to the Golden Temple, as well as a ''chandan da chaur'' (flywhisk) made of sandalwood fibres which took years for Haji Muhammad Maskin, a Muslim craftsman to prepare. In India, as per protocol, all gifts received by the

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

and other officials from overseas have to be deposited in toshakhana for evaluation. Such gifts could be anything - paintings, sarees and other artefacts. Indian toshakhana is managed by the Ministry of External Affairs. The Ministry has its own rate of evaluation done by dedicated personnel. As per a June 1978 gazette notification, every gift received by a person during an official visit should be deposited in the toshakhana within 30 days of his return. Indian rules allow the recipient to keep a gift valued below Rs 5,000 (USD 70). Those valued above are evaluated to allow for purchase by the recipient on payment of the difference. The rest are auctioned off. By order, the government has just amended an over 50-year-old rule to allow

Indian Administrative Service The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is the Public administration, administrative arm of the All India Services of Government of India. The IAS is one of the three All India Services along with the Indian Police Service (IPS) and the Indian ...

Indian Police Service The Indian Police Service (IPS) is a civil service under the All India Services. It replaced the Indian Imperial Police in 1948, a year after India became Partition of India, independent from the British Empire. Along with the Indian Admini ...

and

Indian Forest Service The Indian Forest Service (IFS) is the premier forest service of India. .The IFS is one of the three All India Services along with the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) & the Indian Police Service (IPS). It was constituted in the year 1966 un ...

officers to retain gifts received from foreign dignitaries while being members of the Indian delegation. But they must declare them if they are worth more than Rs 25,000 (USD 340). India has a longer toshakhana history, also of the rules being circumvented. Individual greed, as anywhere, has played its role. Many years ago, a minister who received an expensive gold-plated watch from a

Gulf A gulf is a large inlet from an ocean or their seas into a landmass, larger and typically (though not always) with a narrower opening than a bay (geography), bay. The term was used traditionally for large, highly indented navigable bodies of s ...

sheikh, told the legislature when caught that being "busy" he had "forgot to declare" the gift. While toshakhana rule applies to the President, the Prime Minister, ministers and presiding officers of legislatures in many countries, in India, the scope is wider and includes even middle-level bureaucrats. The Ministry of External Affairs that maintains the toshakhana is thus required to issue a quarterly list. Gifts received at home are also accounted for. Countries/governments from where the gift is received are not mentioned. A Sikh toshakhana is located on the first floor of the Darshani Deorhi, the gateway to the

Elsewhere

The government of Pakistan has its own toshakhana for gifts from other states or head of states. Bangladesh also has its toshakhana.

References

{{reflist Treasure troves in India Diplomatic gifts Jewels of the Nizams of Hyderabad