The number of buildings erected during Jahangir’s reign was poor as compared with the architectural record of his father, but two structures of his time are of exceptional interest and merit. One is the mausoleum of Akbar, whose striking features have been already discussed. The other is the tomb of I’timad-ud-daulah at Agra built by his daughter, Nur Jahan, the consort of Jahangir. The latter was built wholly of white marble decorated with pietra dura work in semi-precious stones. We have an earlier specimen of this work in the Gol Mandal temple at Udaipur (from A.D. 1600). It was therefore a Rajput style, or, most probably, an older Indian style.
Shah Jahan was a prolific builder. Many buildings, palaces, forts, gardens and mosques due to him are to be found at places like Agra, Delhi, Lahore, Kabul, Kashmir, Qandahar, Ajmer, Ahmadabad, Mukhlispur, and elsewhere. Though it is not possible to form precise estimate of the expenditure on these buildings, yet there is no doubt that the cost must have run into several dozen crores of rupees. The structures of Shah Jahan, as compared with those of Akbar, are inferior in grandeur and originality, but they are superior in lavish display and rich and skilful decoration, so that the architecture of the former “becomes jewellery on a bigger scale”. This is particularly illustrated in his Delhi buildings like the Diwan-i-‘Am and the Diwan-i-Khas. The latter, with its costly silver ceiling, and mingled decoration of marble, gold and precious stones, justified the inscription engraved on it:
“Agar firdaus bar ru-yi zamin ast
Hamin ast, u hamin ast, u hamin ast.”
(If on Earth be an Eden of bliss,
It is this, it is this, none but this.)
The lovely Moti Masjid or Pearl Mosque at Agra deserves a higher place from the standpoint of true art for its purity and elegance. Another notable building of the reign is the Jami’ Masjid at Agra, otherwise known as the Masjid-i-Jahan Nama. The Taj Mahal, a splendid mausoleum built by Shah Jahan, at a cost of fifty lacs of rupees, over the grave of his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal, is rightly regarded as one of the wonders of the world for its beauty and magnificence. As regards the identity of the architects who designed and built the Taj, Smith’s contention that it is ” the product of a combination of European and Asiatic genius ” has been challenged by Moin-ud-din Ahmad, who advances reasonable grounds for disbelieving the supposed participation of Italian or French architects in the designing or construction of this noble monument of conjugal fidelity and gives the credit for the design to Ustad ‘Isa. While studying the Taj, a student of Indian art should not fail to note certain points. Firstly, the plan and chief feature of it were not entirely novel, for “from Sher’s mausoleum, and through Humayun’s tomb and the Bijapur memorials, the descent of the style can easily be discerned”; even the “lace-work in marble and other stones, and precious stones inlay (pietra dura) work on marble ” were already present in Western India and Rajput art. Secondly, “the lavish use of white marble and some decorations of Indian character ” lead us to think that there is no reason to overemphasise the domination of Persian influence in Shah Jahan’s buildings as is usually done. Thirdly, considering the intercourse of India with the Western world, particularly the Mediterranean region, during the Mughul period, it would not be historically consistent to believe in the influence of some elements of art of the Western world on the art of India during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and also in the presence of some European builders in different parts of contemporary India.
Though not so famous as the Taj, the mausoleum of Jahangir, built by Shah Jahan at an early date at Shadara in Lahore, is a beautiful specimen of art. Another celebrated work of art of this reign was the Peacock Throne. “The throne was in the form of a cot bedstead on golden legs. The enamelled canopy was supported by twelve emerald pillars, each of which bore two peacocks encrusted with gems. A tree covered with diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and pearls stood between the birds of each pair.” Nadir Shah removed the throne to Persia in 1739, but unfortunately it is no longer to be found anywhere in this world.
In Aurangzeb’s reign the style of architecture began to deteriorate. If not openly hostile to architecture, the puritanic Emperor ceased to encourage it, or to erect buildings, like his predecessors. The few structures of his reign, the most important of which was the Lahore mosque, completed in A.D. 1674, were but feeble imitations of the older models. Soon the creative genius of the Indian artists mostly disappeared, surviving partly in Oudh and Hyderabad in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Painting
Like architecture, painting in the Mughul period represented a happy mingling of extra-Indian as well as Indian elements. A provincialised form of Chinese art, which was a mixture of Indian Buddhist,Iranian, Bactrian and Mongolian influences, was introduced into Persia, in the thirteenth century by its Mongol conquerors and was continued by their Timurid successors, who again imported it into India. The characteristics of this Indo-Sino-Persian art were assimilated, mingled and combined, in the time of Akbar, in products of the contemporary Indian schools of painting, which flourished, as a renaissance of earlier Hindu, Buddhist and Jaina styles, in different parts of the country, such as Gujarat, Rajputana, Vijayanagar. Bijapur, Ahmadnagar and some other places, and led to the development of a style of painting in which the Mongoloid elements gradually declined and the Indian ones predominated. This modification can be clearly seen in the paintings in the copies of the Khandan-i-Timuria and the Padshahnamah, both of which are preserved in the Khudabakhsh Library of Patna.
It is possible that Babur, who was “always keenly observant of the beauties of Nature”, patronised the art of painting, like his Timurid ancestors, according to his limited resources. The paintings in the Alwar MS. of the Persian version of his Memoirs probably represent the style that grew up in his time. Humayun, who, like other Timurids possessed a taste for art, spent his hours of exile in Persia in studying Sino-Persian music, poetry and painting and came in contact with the leading artists of Persia, who flourished under the generous patronage of Shah Tahmasp. Two of them-Mir Sayyid ‘Ali, a pupil of the famous Bihzad of Herat, who has been styled “the Raphael of the East”, and Khwaja ‘Abdus Samad–were persuaded to come to his court at Kabul in A.D. 1550. Humayun and his son Akbar took Iessons from them in the art of painting and engaged them in the task of preparing the illustrations to the Dastan-i- Amir Hamzah. These two foreign artists, working with their Indian assistants, “formed the nucleus of the Mughul school of painting”, which became so prominent in the time of Akbar. This passed on as a valuable gift from Humayun to Akbar, while his political legacy was precarious.
