LONDON — When the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan ascended to power in 1628, he inscribed a suitably inspirational verse into the panels of his palace to convey the wealth and artistic splendor of the empire he inherited. The young emperor found his perfection in the verses of the 13th-century poet Amir Khusrao: “If there is Paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this.”
More than 500 years later, these words are part of an exhibition that showcases the sophisticated cultural language developed in the Indian subcontinent from around 1560 to 1660. The Great Mughals: Art, Architecture and Opulence, a major exhibition at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, spans the reigns of the first three emperors, Akbar (1556–1605), Jahangir (1605–27), and Shah Jahan (1628–58).
British colonial Indology (and contemporary far-right Indian politics) categorize the Mughals as Muslim invaders, somehow quintessentially apart from the Indic civilisations they conquered from the 13th century onwards. But the historical reality is that the syncretic culture they espoused valued and assimilated Hindu and Indic aesthetic features and the cultures that birthed them. Manuscripts on display attest to this vibrant cosmopolitanism. One panel, painstakingly painted by the imperial artists in Lahore, depicts a story from the Hindu epic Ramayana. Another depicts mythological figures from both Iranian and Hindu folklore coexisting in a new metaphysical world.
Curated by Susan Stronge, the over 200 objects on display are as staggeringly beautiful as they are representative of the sheer wealth of the empire. Illustrated manuscripts, finely woven textiles, and intricately cut gemstones (including a 249-carat spinel gifted to Jahangir by Shah Abbas of Iran in 1621, on loan from the al-Sabah collection) jostle with more quotidian, but no less beautiful, objects from outside of the imperial court, such as brass eating wares and a painstakingly inlaid wooden chest of drawers made for European merchants.
The Mughals were interested in other spheres as well — they were part of the Persianate world spanning the Silk Roads, with Persian serving as Akbar’s imperial lingua franca. Portuguese merchants introduced enameling, and the court goldsmiths of Delhi and Ajmer soon brought the technique to new heights via sumptuously designed weapons and jewelry. Jesuit missionaries brought botanical drawings to Akbar and Jahangir’s courts, which courtly artisans soon incorporated into forms such as parchin kari, the cutting and fitting of highly polished colored stones to create stunning inlaid marble, drawing from similar Italian Renaissance techniques as well. But the greatest of these parchin kari creations commissioned by Shah Jahan cannot be contained in the V&A’s walls: The Taj Mahal, with its delicately inlaid pristine white marble walls, continues to stun the world.
The Mughals also turned eastward for aesthetic inspiration. Ming and Qing China introduced new designs and materials like porcelain through imperial gifts to the imperial court. Shah Jahan’s reign saw the melting pot of the Mughal aesthetic language reach its zenith, showcased at the V&A via a nephrite jade wine cup made for Shah Jahan in 1657. Exquisitely carved, the body’s gourd-like form is Chinese-inspired; the carved lotus is a motif of Hinduism; and the acanthus leaves, European.
The exhibition ends as it begins, with a juxtaposition of the elite and mundane craftsmanship that combined to form the cosmopolitan culture across the Mughal empire: Marble parchin kari balustrades, taken from 18th-century palaces, stand opposite glazed cuerda seca earthenware tiles. Even as the empire’s star began to wane due to a succession of weak emperors, rebellions, and the growing ambitions of the British East India Company, these late works suggest, its legacy of cultural innovation and artistry persists to this day.
The Great Mughals: Art, Architecture and Opulence continues at the Victoria & Albert Museum through May 5. The exhibition was curated by Susan Stronge.
