Ludi's Travels

“India’s Great Mughals” Exhibit Celebrates Creative Output, Spans a Century!

The 500-year milestone of the Mughal Empire’s founding (1526-2026) is the perfect time for a new exhibit on display at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond (VMFA). India’s Great Mughals: Art, Power, and Opulence offers valuable lessons in history and art while celebrating the extraordinarily large creative output of the period. Before Richmond, the exhibit was in London and Hong Kong; it goes next to Nashville, Tennessee in 2027, but (alas) not to India!

Expertly curated by the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London (from where it derives most of its pieces), it has also drawn from the VMFA’s South Asia collection, and more than thirty others, among them, the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence, the al-Sabah Collection in Kuwait, and the Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar. Paintings not seen for a generation are included as well as two hundred-plus objects made of cloth, gems, ivory, marble, metal, paper, porcelain, stone, and wood.

At its peak, the Moghul Empire was one of the world’s richest and most progressive, encompassing most of subcontinental India, and far outstripping the contemporary Islamic empires of the Ottomans and Safavids (1). Although its history is long and complex — the first emperor (Babur) a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan, ascended the throne in 1526, and the last (Bahadur Shah Zafar), was deposed by the British more than three centuries later — the exhibition focuses on three rulers: Akbar (1556–1605), Jahangir (1605–27), and Shah Jahan (1628– 58). Their greatness derives not only from their patronage of art but also from their curiosity and openness to other faiths and cultures.

Historical Reference Timeline

The historical timeline provided is significant. The artistic golden age of the Moghuls began decades before the founding of Jamestown in Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas which was established in 1607, two years after Jahangir ascended the throne; two years later, Captain William Hawkins (an Englishman) arrived at Jahangir's court to negotiate a trade agreement for the East India Company. Although the three emperors are roughly contemporary with British monarchs Elizabeth I, James I, and Charles I, the Mughal empire was already synonymous with luxury, magnificence, and power — whereas England (at the time) had only just begun to dream of an empire!

Each room is filled with exceptional pieces: sandstone jalis (stone screen windows), huqqa (water pipe) bases, ewers, decanters, divination rings, and braziers made of bronze and copper, gold leaf-illustrated manuscript pages from Akbar’s Kitab Khana (House of Books), mother-of-pearl and ivory cabinets, jeweled swords, scabbards, punch daggers, and natural history paintings (demonstrating the courts’ attention to science and reason), and marble balustrades inlaid with jasper, carnelian, and topaz. There are also precious gems: diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, rubies, spinels, including a red royal spinel inscribed with the names of six rulers, and a Colombian 110 carat emerald pendant carved with a flower motif — all once part of the emperor’s throne. There is so much to see that some paintings — also called Mughal Miniatures (2) — nearly got overlooked!

Language and Cross-Cultural Influences

Most of the 100 million people (Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Zoroastrians, and Christians) governed by the Moghuls shared neither the religion, language, nor ancestry of the rulers. To unite a diverse empire, language became a key tool. When they arrived, Persian was already (3) the language of the court and the language of scholars from Central Asia to the Deccan. The Mughals — who were not themselves native Persian (4) speakers — took this further by employing Persian-proficient administrators across communities — Afghan, Rajput Hindu, Safavid, and Indian Muslim — to create a court elite (like a civil service) whose identity was defined not by ethnic or religious origin but by a shared language and culture.

While Persian became the language of every imperial decree and land revenue record, at Akbar’s Maktab Khana (translation house) in Fatehpur Sikri, scholars translated major Sanskrit texts (the Mahabharata, Ramayana, and Upanishads) into Persian, thereby signaling to the Hindu population that their faith, heritage, and philosophical traditions were respected.

Trade in products, ideas, and people brought an abundance of influences into and out of the empire which thrived in the cosmopolitan court and multiethnic population. This cross-cultural collaboration welcomed Hindu and Muslim artists, Iranian painters, calligraphers, and architects using skills, imagery, techniques, and materials from around the world.

Watercolors of court scenes are displayed alongside delicate textiles, brilliantly colored carpets, canopies, and fine objects made of rock crystal, jade, and precious metals. Of particular note is the hybrid art created in court workshops by Iranian and Hindustani artists and craftsmen and the influence of European art brought by Christian missionaries as well as the impact on Moghul painting of Christian iconography, including figures of Jesus and Mary, painted by local Hindu and Muslim artists.

Religious Tolerance

The three emperors embraced religious complexity and did not expect the Hindu population to convert to Islam. In fact, they were attracted to Hindu mythology and mysticism. In A Muslim Pilgrim Learns a Lesson in Piety from a Brahman (5), a painting that blends Persian text, Hindu imagery, and European realism (see below pic and description), a Muslim pilgrim walks through an Indian landscape where he encounters a Hindu ascetic lying in the road and learns a valuable lesson in humility. The painting highlights Akbar’s policy of peaceful coexistence and mutual respect for all faiths.

The Mughals were also attracted to the mystic Islamic Sufi movement represented here (see pics below) by Sufi-inscribed tiles from a mosque in Lahore and a Sufi dervish’s horn for drinking wine and collecting alms. Court painters illustrated the words of Sufi poets Hafez and Rumi by transforming abstract metaphors and bringing parables to life.

Religious tolerance — the norm under Akbar — shifted gradually from active pluralism (6) to a more traditional, orthodox Islamic state policy while maintaining overall administrative tolerance. Each emperor balanced personal beliefs with the practical need to govern a vast, multi-religious population. While general freedom of worship remained intact, Jahangir acted harshly against specific political or religious figures (7) who opposed his authority. At the same time, he enjoyed engaging in active theological debates with Jains, Hindus, and Christian Jesuits.

Akbar’s Affinity for Art

Crowned in 1556 at age 13, Akbar transformed the empire during his half-century reign, integrating military might with a love of art and culture that his successors would share. The court painting style he began combines closely observed reality with fantasy.

He commissioned the Hamza-Nama (Book of Hamza) in the 1570s, one of the earliest examples of Mughal painting, chronicling the exploits of Muslim hero Hamza and his followers as they battle demons and giants (see pic). Unlike small Mughal miniatures, these large paintings on cotton cloth feature the giant fleeing mid-air, capturing the magical warfare described in the epic. Akbar’s workshops had succeeded in blending local pictorial traditions with Safavid conventions. (Austria’s MAK Vienna holds the world's largest single collection of surviving Hamza-Nama works.)

The focus on artisans is evident alongside Karkhanas (ateliers, workshops) and Kitab Khanas (libraries) — all the more important given that Akbar could neither read nor write despite being a keen patron of learning. A superb selection of folios from 16th-century imperial manuscripts of the Qur’an, Hamza-Nama, Akbar-Nama and Ramayana line the walls, accompanied by texts and framed calligraphy.

Funded by the imperial treasury, the workshops were staffed by craftsmen and artisans from across the empire, merging their different techniques into a single distinctive Mughal style. The Tasvir Khana (painting workshop) employed more than 200 painters, the majority of whom were Hindu, with Muslim, Persian, and Central Asian masters working alongside them. Other karkhanas produced textiles, books, jewellery, gold and silverware, perfumes, medicines, and carpets.

To help him rule a multi-ethnic empire, Akbar commissioned artworks connecting his Persian origin to local Hindu traditions. A manuscript of the Persian translation of the Ramayana, the ancient Hindu epic, was produced during his reign, with a seal indicating that it had once been kept in Akbar’s mother’s library.

To strengthen alliances with local Hindu rulers, Akbar married a Rajput princess as did his son Jahangir and grandson Shah Jahan. Jahangir and Shah Jahan had Hindu mothers representing the fusion of regional Indian and broader Islamic court cultures.

Jahangir

Inheriting a wealthy and stable kingdom, Jahangir continued his father’s legacy by encouraging his artists to innovate and refine, expanding themes of multiculturalism and cosmopolitanism. Like his father, he ran a diverse court that mixed Persian, Indian, European, and Central Asian traditions, welcomed many religions, supported the arts, and opened high government roles to Hindus and people from various backgrounds.

His court was famous for its opulence. According to explanatory notes, “the dazzling appearance of the court inspired England’s ambassador Sir Thomas Roe, to describe it in a 1616 letter to the future King Charles I as ‘the treasury of the world.’”

Collaboration with European artists is evident in a painting of Jahangir on a throne designed by a French goldsmith from Bordeaux. There are botanical engravings by Flemish artisans and examples of how these were adapted by the Mughals. Relations with China are highlighted by a collection of white, blue, and imperial yellow porcelain, and with the Safavids and Armenians by objects of copper and bronze. Portuguese merchants are depicted visiting the court and, oddly, speaking with angels as court artists try to understand their religion! Cultural exchanges went both ways. A Mughal round shield, covered in mother of pearl — which entered the collection of the Medici family in the 1590s — is on display, on loan from the Bargello Museum in Florence.

We see evidence of Jahangir’s drinking in paintings and engraved coins where he is shown with a cup of wine in hand. The painters of the royal atelier were likely first-hand witnesses to his struggle with addiction described also in his memoirs. The wine cups on display offer a window into a time when art and indulgence coexisted. The grapevine motifs symbolize abundance and the regenerative power of nature (an enduring interest for the emperor). Also adorning the cups are inscriptions and poetic verses composed by Jahangir himself.

In this painting (8) by Bichitr titled Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaikh to Kings (see image), the emperor has a halo and is slightly larger than the other figures creating a sense of divine status. He appears to revere the saint while ignoring the two monarchs (an Ottoman Sultan and King James I of England) as well as the artist, Bichitr, who paints himself into the scene, but is unable to get Jahangir’s attention!

Shah Jahan’s Paradisal Garden

Under Shah Jahan, the empire’s territories were expanded and its wealth increased. He had a passion for building, including, the Red Fort (Lal Qila), the Jama Masjidmosque, and his best known construction, the Taj Mahal, perhaps India’s most famous monument. His reign is celebrated as the golden age of Mughal architecture and is marked by the use of white marble, strict symmetry, delicate gemstone inlay, and expansive formal gardens. Accompanied by a short video of the Taj Mahal, the exhibition showcases architectural components to demonstrate construction designs, including painted tiles, and a pierced marble screen mounted on a gallery wall.

During this period, floral motifs used in the Taj replaced other traditional patterns and were carved in stone, jade and crystal, woven on textiles, painted on manuscripts, and enameled on objets d’art — evoking an ideal world free of death, disease, or poverty. The aim was to project an image of the Emperor as a wise and just monarch who ruled over a garden of paradise as described by 13th-century Sufi poet Amir Khusrau: “If there is paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this.” (In Persian: “Agar firdaus bar roo-e zameen ast, hameen ast-o hameen ast-o hameen ast”).

The couplet — which is famously inscribed in gold calligraphy on the walls of the Diwan-i-Khas (Hall of Private Audience) at the Red Fort in Delhi — is also displayed prominently in the exhibit’s Shah Jahan section.

At the peak of Shah Jahan’s reign, the concept of the cultivated paradisal garden (9) had evolved into a metaphor for peace under imperial rule. Khusrow speaks not only to the decadence that defined the artistic tastes of a wealthy court, but also, perhaps, to the moment of religious and cultural pluralism that was cultivated by the three Mughal rulers featured here — long before European colonization and the divisions it wrought and solidified.

Provenance and Sourcing

Given the scaling back, even erasure, of medieval history (specifically, the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal periods) in Indian school textbooks and the constant vilification of the country’s former Muslim rulers as being foreign-born and therefore not worth studying, it is disappointing — but unsurprising — that this exhibition will not be seen in India.

What is surprising though is the failure to address inevitable questions about the provenance of objects which arise from the history of colonial and post-colonial looting. Although American museums (as opposed to British) have done a better job of identifying and returning stolen art, they continue to hide behind the fig leaf that much of their questionable pieces were acquired before the signing of treaties like the 1970 UNESCO Convention on Cultural Property, and that standard "decolonization" repatriation frameworks do not apply!

Note that art repatriation is usually government-to-government and — while India has actively sought the return of high-profile items like the Koh-i-Noor diamond and Peacock Throne (10), both ironically of Mughal origin, or idols stolen from temples — it has not yet or likely to (given the 2023 purging of the Mughal Empire from history textbooks) asked for the return of, say, the Mughal folio page, Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaikh to Kings!

Also remarkable and somewhat disheartening is that none of these outstanding samples of Mughal artworks in the exhibition came from South Asia whose museums have a surfeit of them, as I recall! With the exception of some relatively new Middle Eastern collections (Kuwait, Qatar), all the exhibits here have been sourced — entirely — from European and North American institutions!

Such quibbles (legit though they may be) do not detract from or diminish the show which is providing viewers a welcome opportunity to enjoy — at leisure, and in one location — a landmark collection of exhibits that are otherwise dispersed around the world and are rarely so well displayed. Thank you, VMFA and V&A!

Cultural Appropriation

The multiculturalism of the exhibit also exposes the idea of cultural appropriation in art and religion as nonsensical! The Mughal court viewed cross-cultural borrowing as a celebration of shared human heritage that invalidates strict ownership boundaries. They reveled in borrowing, experimenting with, adapting, enhancing, and appropriated anything and everything!

One of the fun paintings, titled A Turkey Cock (image below) by Ustad Mansur, a renowned naturalist and court artist, was commissioned by Jahangir after receiving the turkey as a gift from the Portuguese Viceroy in Goa in 1612. Native to the Americas, turkeys were previously unknown in India, making it an exotic and fascinating subject for the emperor. A trumpeting elephant was an everyday sight for the Indian Mughals, not so much a gobbling turkey!

Legitimacy through Art

The Mughals established their political legitimacy by using art, notably, illustrated manuscripts, as powerful visual tools to project divine right. Since much of the population was illiterate, highly stylized paintings were a universal language, reinforcing their absolute authority.

Lavishly illustrated historical chronicles — like the Akbar Nama (Book of Akbar), Jahangir Nama or Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri (Book of Jahangir) and Padshahnama (Book of Emperors) — were commissioned to document their reigns and show the emperors in court, receiving ambassadors, executing justice, riding horses and elephants. The aim was to portray them as undisputed sovereigns.

Influenced by Sufi mysticism and European Christian art, Mughal artists painted a golden halo around the heads of the emperors to symbolize divine favor. Motifs of lions and lamb were incorporated to signal that Moghul rule brought justice and harmony. Expensive materials like crushed gold and silver were used in paintings to demonstrate the limitless wealth of the imperial treasury.

By blending bright Indian colors with Persian painting techniques and European realism, Mughal workshops created a sophisticated, distinct style that established the court as the global center of refinement. Completed manuscripts were much in demand and distributed to local nobles and foreign rulers as luxury items and diplomatic gifts, serving as physical reminders of Mughal supremacy.

Culture as Soft Power

By the seventeenth century, the shared aesthetic of Mughal culture had spread far beyond the country’s borders, transcending any single community.

Regional courts adopted distinct Mughal painting techniques: the famous Radha portraits from Kishangarh, for instance, had their origin in the Mughal Tasvir Khana. Iconic Rajput miniature schools (Mewar, Marwar, and Bundi) absorbed painting techniques from established Mughal workshops before pivoting to Hindu epic themes.

Mughal architecture transformed Rajput palaces between the 15th and 18th centuries, blending rugged hill forts with symmetrical layouts. Buildings like the Amer Fort in Jaipur and the City Palace in Udaipur — once purely defensive — were refined into residential complexes with pavilions, formal gardens, courtyards (chowks), floral motifs, ornamental stonework (jali screens), and windows for jharokha darshan, where the public could glimpse the ruler and receive his blessing, similar to a modern Pope!

Hindustani classical music was also shaped by the Mughal court. Persian music, Indian classical forms, and Central Asian instruments combined over generations into a distinctly Mughal musical culture. Akbar’s court was also home to master composer, Mian Tansen, who united indigenous Hindu and Islamic Sufi traditions.

The Persian (Farsi) vocabulary entered local languages across the subcontinent. It was used by non-Muslim courts like those of the Sikh and Maratha rulers, before being replaced by English and Urdu in the 1830s. Like English today, Persian acted as a common medium for governance, law, and diplomacy among diverse linguistic groups. Languages like Punjabi, Sindhi, Kashmiri, Bengali, and Marathi absorbed extensive Persian administrative, legal, and cultural vocabulary. Hindustani emerged from Persian and eventually became Urdu and Hindi, the main languages of the northern subcontinent.

The most durable form of power is soft power to shape what people find meaningful. The Taj Mahal still draws eight million visitors a year. Hindustani classical music still resonates. The development of Hindustani — the vernacular that emerged from centuries of Persian — is a direct result of Mughal rule and still shapes the subcontinent. These are undeniable cultural legacies that the Mughals built and remain an intrinsic component of their soft power.

Notes

(1) The Ottoman Empire was a powerful, long-lasting Islamic state founded around 1299 by Turkic leader Osman I. At its peak in the 16th and 17th centuries, it spanned parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa but came to an end after World War I. In 1923, it was replaced with modern Turkey.

The Safavid Empire (1501–1736) was a major Iranian dynasty that ruled over modern-day Iran, Azerbaijan, and parts of Iraq, Turkey, and Afghanistan. Founded by Shah Ismail I, it established Twelver Shi'a Islam as the official state religion, permanently shaping the cultural and religious identity of Iran.

(2) Mughal Miniatures or paintings are manuscript illustrations and can mean any highly intricate artwork small enough to be handheld, and kept in folios or albums (muraqqa). Miniature describes their size and attention to detail and is derived from a red lead paint called minium. Favorite themes were hunting and battle scenes, flora and fauna, and court life.

(3) More than 300 years of Muslim rule preceded the Mughals in the form of the Turko-Afghan Delhi Sultanate, 1206 to 1526. The exhibition’s organizers do not clarify that — prior to the Mughals — Persian was already the language of court and of the administration.

(4) The Mughals, who were of Timurid and Turko-Mongol descent, were ethnically and culturally Chagatai Turks, not native Persian speakers! The empire’s founder, Babur, wrote his autobiography, the Baburnama, in Chagatai Turkic and was also fluent in Persian. His son Humayun spoke Chagatai. By the time of the third emperor, Akbar, Persian was firmly established as the official state language, although the emperors and their households were multilingual, speaking Persian, Turkic, and Hindustani.

(5) Created for Akbar’s imperial workshop, the painting A Muslim Pilgrim Learns a Lesson in Piety from a Brahman (image below), is based on a manuscript page from the Khamsa (Quintet) by poet Amir Khusrau and depicts a Muslim haji (see turban, blue robe, staff) heading toward Mecca. On the road, he encounters a Hindu Brahman on his way to a temple, lying flat on the earth and inching forward by prostrating himself. Impressed by the intensity of such physical and spiritual devotion, the Muslim traveler removes his shoes and continues barefoot to Mecca.

(6) Influenced by Sufism and the Bhakti movement, Akbar valued rational thought over religious orthodoxy. By ending the Jizya Tax (historically levied by Muslim states on non-Muslim citizens) and employing Hindus in high ranking jobs at court, he sought to secure their loyalty while also diminishing the power of rigid Islamic clerics. He built the Ibadat Khana (House of Worship) in Fatehpur Sikri to host debates between Christian, Hindu, Jain, Muslim, and Zoroastrian scholars, later promoting a moral code known as Din-i-Ilahi (Divine Faith).

(7) Otherwise known for his liberal views, in 1606, Jahangir executed Sikh Guru Arjan Dev whose call for universal equality challenged the rigid caste system of orthodox Hindu priests, the supremacy of fanatical clerics of the Islamic Naqshbandi sect, and the emperor himself who was fighting a rebellion by his son, Prince Khusrau. Aurangzeb, the son of Shah Jahan and grandson of Jahangir, abandoned the Mughal policy of religious tolerance altogether by imposing Sharia law (Islamic law), tearing down thousands of temples, and reimposing a punitive tax on Hindus.

(8) Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaikh to Kings has a complicated history! It was one of many stolen in 1739 by Persian ruler Nadir Shah who sacked Delhi, looted the Mughal library, and brought loose paintings back to Iran. In the late 19th/early 20th centuries, as the Persian Qajar dynasty declined, the paintings were taken from the Royal Library in Teheran and sold to the Russian Imperial collection of Tsar Nicholas II. While most of the 98 surviving folios remain in St. Petersburg, several pages, including this one, were sold again on the global art market in the early 20th century and are now with institutions like the National Museum of Asian Art , Washington, D.C. but retain the "St. Petersburg" name to denote their historical origin. On the other hand, the provenance of A Prince, Perhaps Parviz, with a Female Companion and Attendants (see first image below), is less convoluted but still concerning; it traces from a private collection through Sotheby’s London (2023) before acquisition by the VMFA.

(9) The “paradisal garden,” a symmetrical walled-in Persian garden with water channels, flowers, and fruit trees, comes from the word pairidaeza or paradise, and is said to serve as a peaceful and harmonious heaven on earth!

(10) Mined in India’s southern region, the Koh-i-Noor Diamond, which was mounted on Shah Jahan’s famous Peacock Throne, was seized by Persian ruler Nadir Shah during his 1739 invasion of Delhi. When Shah was killed by his men, the diamond was taken by Afghanistan’s Durrani dynasty before being surrendered in 1813 back to India by Shah Shuja to Sikh ruler Maharaja Ranjit Singh. After the British defeat of the Sikh Empire in the Second Anglo-Sikh War, the East India Company forced the young Maharaja Duleep Singh to sign the Treaty of Lahore in 1849 which officially surrendered the diamond to Queen Victoria (along with the famous Timur Ruby). Since then, it has remained in the Tower of London as part of the British Crown Jewels. The governments of India, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan have all claimed ownership but the British government insists the gem was obtained legally and has rejected their claims.

The Peacock Throne was built for Shah Jahan and placed in the Diwan-i-Khas at Delhi’s Red Fort. Completed in 1635, it was made of pure gold and precious stones, including the famous Koh-i-Noor diamond and several others, such as the Akbar Shah and Shah. The throne, which took seven years to complete, was named for the two jewel-studded peacocks above its canopy. Even by Golden Age Mughal standards, it was extravagant, costing twice as much as the construction of the Taj Mahal! It was seized by Nader Shah during his 1739 invasion and looting of Delhi and taken to Iran. After Shah’s death, the throne disappeared. It was probably dismantled and the stones stolen. Many of these stones ended up part of the Persian Crown Jewels and, later, the British Crown Jewels — as a result of Britain's colonial expansion into the region.

Ludi Joseph

Richmond, VA

August 12, 2026

Images from exhibit