Mughal Culture: Architecture, Painting, Literature and Music

A composite culture

Mughal culture blended Persian, Central Asian and Indian traditions. Mughal rulers were great patrons, and their courts drew artists, poets and builders from Persia as well as from Rajasthan, Gujarat and the Deccan. The result – often called Indo-Persian or composite culture – still shapes Indian architecture, painting, music, dress, food and language (Urdu).

Architecture: from Babur to Shah Jahan

Babur laid out charbagh gardens – a garden divided into four parts by water channels, symbolising paradise – such as the Ram Bagh (Aram Bagh) at Agra. Few of his buildings survive.

Humayun's Tomb (Delhi, completed c. 1570): built by his widow and designed by the Persian architect Mirak Mirza Ghiyas. It is the first garden tomb of the subcontinent, set in a charbagh, with a double dome, red sandstone with white marble inlay, and a high platform. UNESCO World Heritage Site (1993). It inspired the Taj Mahal.

Akbar – red sandstone and synthesis:

• Agra Fort (rebuilt in red sandstone; Jahangiri Mahal with Hindu brackets and chhajjas).
• Fatehpur Sikri (1571–1585) – the new capital near Agra, built to honour the Sufi saint Shaikh Salim Chishti, who had predicted the birth of Jahangir. Its buildings show the fusion of Islamic and Indian styles:
• Buland Darwaza (about 54 m, built to commemorate the conquest of Gujarat) – the highest gateway in the world at the time;
• Jama Masjid;
• Tomb of Salim Chishti in white marble with serpentine brackets and fine jaalis;
• Panch Mahal (five-storeyed pavilion modelled on Buddhist viharas);
• Diwan-i-Khas with a single central pillar;
• Jodha Bai's palace and Birbal's house with Gujarati and Rajput features.

The city was abandoned soon after, probably due to water shortage and political needs in the north-west. UNESCO site (1986).

• Akbar's tomb at Sikandra, completed by Jahangir, with a pyramidal design and no dome.

Jahangir – transition to marble:

• Tomb of Itimad-ud-Daula (Agra), built by Nur Jahan for her father – the first Mughal building entirely in white marble and the first to use pietra dura (inlay of semi-precious stones) extensively. It is called the "Baby Taj".
• Jahangir's real love was gardens: the Shalimar Bagh and Nishat Bagh (by Asaf Khan) in Kashmir.
• His tomb at Shahdara (Lahore).

Shah Jahan – the high point:

• Taj Mahal (Agra, about 1632–1653), the tomb of Mumtaz Mahal. Chief architect: Ustad Ahmad Lahori. White Makrana marble, pietra dura, calligraphy by Amanat Khan, a bulbous double dome, four free-standing minarets leaning slightly outward, perfect symmetry, and a charbagh garden with the tomb placed at the river end rather than the centre. UNESCO site (1983).
• Red Fort (Lal Qila), Delhi (1639–1648) in Shahjahanabad, with the Diwan-i-Am, Diwan-i-Khas (inscription: "If there is paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this"), Rang Mahal and the Nahr-i-Bihisht (stream of paradise). UNESCO site (2007).
• Jama Masjid, Delhi – the largest mosque in India of its time.
• Moti Masjid in Agra Fort; the Peacock Throne (Takht-i-Taus).

Aurangzeb: fewer buildings – the Badshahi Mosque (Lahore), the Moti Masjid in the Red Fort (for personal use), and the Bibi ka Maqbara at Aurangabad (tomb of his wife Rabia-ud-Daurani, built by his son Azam Shah), often called the "poor man's Taj".

Features of Mughal architecture: bulbous double domes, chhatris, charbagh gardens, pietra dura, jaalis, calligraphy, high platforms, iwans (vaulted gateways), symmetry, and the use of red sandstone (Akbar) shifting to white marble (Shah Jahan).

Mughal painting

Mughal painting began with Humayun, who brought two Persian masters from the Safavid court – Mir Sayyid Ali and Abdus Samad.

Akbar's period:

• A karkhana of painters, many Indian (Daswanth, Basawan, Lal, Kesu), produced illustrated manuscripts: the Hamzanama (Dastan-i-Amir Hamza; about 1,400 large paintings on cloth), the Razmnama (Mahabharata), the Akbarnama, Tutinama and the Baburnama.
• Style: lively action scenes, crowded compositions, Persian flat perspective combined with Indian colours and naturalism; European (Jesuit) influence brought shading and perspective.

Jahangir's period – the golden age:

• Jahangir was a connoisseur who claimed he could identify each artist's hand in a painting.
• Focus on portraits, court scenes, and natural history – birds, animals and flowers.
• Masters: Ustad Mansur (birds and animals, e.g. the Siberian crane, the zebra, the dodo; title Nadir-ul-Asr), Abul Hasan (portraits; title Nadir-uz-Zaman), Bishandas (portraits; sent to Persia).
• The halo around the emperor's head and allegorical paintings (Jahangir preferring a Sufi to kings) show European and symbolic influences.
• Muraqqa – albums of paintings and calligraphy.

Shah Jahan: more formal, decorative and rich in gold; Padshahnama illustrations.

Aurangzeb: withdrew royal patronage; painters moved to regional courts, giving rise to Rajput, Pahari and Deccani schools (covered in the Art and Culture module).

Literature and historiography

• Persian was the court language. Major works: Akbarnama and Ain-i-Akbari (Abul Fazl), Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh (Badauni, critical of Akbar's religious policy), Tabaqat-i-Akbari (Nizamuddin Ahmad), Padshahnama (Abdul Hamid Lahori), Alamgirnama (Mirza Muhammad Kazim), Muntakhab-ul-Lubab (Khafi Khan).
• Translations at Akbar's Maktab Khana: Mahabharata (Razmnama), Ramayana, Atharva Veda, Lilavati, Panchatantra (Anwar-i-Suhaili / Iyar-i-Danish), and the Rajatarangini.
• Hindi and regional literature: Tulsidas (Ramcharitmanas), Surdas (Sursagar) and Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khanan (dohas) flourished in this period, though outside the court for the most part.
• Urdu grew as the language of the bazaar and the camp, maturing in the 18th century.

Music

• Tansen of Gwalior, a disciple of Swami Haridas, served Akbar; he is credited with ragas like Miyan ki Todi, Miyan ki Malhar and Darbari Kanada.
• Baz Bahadur of Malwa and Raja Man Singh Tomar of Gwalior (dhrupad) were earlier patrons.
• Shah Jahan was fond of music; Aurangzeb banned singing at court but did not ban instrumental music, and more books on music were written in his reign than before – a nuance UPSC likes.

Mains practice question

Q. "Mughal architecture represents the synthesis of Indian and Persian traditions." Illustrate with examples. (150 words)

Framework: Persian elements (charbagh, iwan, double dome, calligraphy); Indian elements (chhatris, brackets, jharokhas, lotus motifs, local craftsmen and sandstone); examples – Humayun's tomb, Fatehpur Sikri, Itimad-ud-Daula, Taj Mahal; conclusion on legacy (Rajput palaces, colonial Indo-Saracenic).

Quick self-test

1. Which building first used white marble throughout? *(Tomb of Itimad-ud-Daula)*
2. What does the Buland Darwaza commemorate? *(Conquest of Gujarat)*
3. Who painted the Siberian crane? *(Ustad Mansur)*
4. Who wrote Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh? *(Badauni)*
5. Which Persian painters did Humayun bring? *(Mir Sayyid Ali and Abdus Samad)*

Daily life and material culture

Mughal influence went beyond monuments:

• Food: Mughal cuisine introduced or refined dishes like biryani, pulao, kebabs, kormas and rich gravies with dry fruits; ice was brought from the Himalayas to the court; fruit gardens grew melons and grapes from Central Asia.
• Dress: the jama (long coat), pyjama, shalwar, turban styles and fine Kashmiri shawls spread among elites, including Rajput courts.
• Crafts: carpet weaving (Akbar set up workshops at Agra, Fatehpur Sikri and Lahore), jewellery, enamelling (meenakari), jade carving (Shah Jahan's wine cup), and textiles such as zari brocade.
• Festivals: Nauroz and Diwali, Holi and Raksha Bandhan were celebrated at Akbar's court; the emperor was weighed against gold on his birthday (tuladan), an Indian custom.
• Language: many Persian words entered Indian languages – for example *kanoon, adalat, zameen, dukaan, kursi* – a legacy still visible in administration and law.

Key terms glossary

• Charbagh: four-part garden.
• Pietra dura (parchin kari): stone inlay.
• Muraqqa: album of paintings and calligraphy.
• Iwan: vaulted portal.
• Maktab Khana: translation bureau.