Ludi's Travels

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

The 500-year milestone of the Mughal Empire’s founding in 1526 by Emperor Babur is perhaps a propitious 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 extraordinary creative output of the period. Before Richmond, the exhibit was in London and Hong Kong; it goes next to Nashville, Tennessee in early 2027, but (alas) not to India!

Expertly curated by the Victoria and Albert Museum 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, glass, ivory, marble, metal, paper, porcelain, 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 contemporary Islamic empires of the Ottomans and Safavids. Although Mughal history is long and complicated — the first emperor, Babur, was a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan, 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 (1605–1627), and Shah Jahan (1628– 1658). Their patronage of art was not the only reason for their greatness; it was also their curiosity and openness to other cultures.

Historical Timeline

The historical reference timeline provided is significant.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. The Virginia Company established Jamestown 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 Mughals were already synonymous with luxury, magnificence, and power — whereas England (at the time) had only just begun to dream of empire!

Each room is filled with exceptional artworks: marble jalis (screen windows), huqqa (water pipe) bases, ewers, chalices, divination rings, and braziers made of bronze and copper, gold leaf-illustrated manuscripts and folio pages from Akbar’s Kitab Khana (House of Books), mother-of-pearl cabinets, jeweled swords, scabbards, punch daggers, and natural history paintings (demonstrating the courts’ attention to science and reason), and marble balustrades inlaid with agate, carnelian, and jasper. There are also gemstones: diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, spinel (often confused with rubies), including a 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 striking watercolors (Moghul miniatures) (1) nearly got overlooked!

Persian 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 (2) the language of the court and the language of scholars from Central Asia to the Deccan. The Mughals 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, signaling to the Hindu population that their intellectual heritage, and philosophical traditions had a place in court.

Trade in products and people brought an abundance of influences and ideas 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 that demonstrates the influence of European art brought by Christian missionaries and foreign ambassadors, as well as the impact on Moghul painting of Christian iconography, including figures of Jesus and Mary painted by local Hindu and Muslim artists (images below).

Religious Tolerance & Complexity

The three emperors embraced religious complexity and did not expect the Hindu population to convert to Islam. In fact, they were intrigued by Hindu mythology and mystics. In a painting called A Muslim Pilgrim Learns a Lesson in Piety from a Brahman (see below image), a pilgrim walks through an Indian landscape where he encounters a Hindu lying in the road and learns a valuable lesson in spiritual humility.

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

Religious tolerance — the norm under Akbar who championed universal peace (Suhl-I-Kul) by treating all religions as equal under the state — shifted gradually from active pluralism 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-faith population. Jahangir maintained his father’s broad framework of religious freedom (3) while welcoming Hindu ascetics, Jain scholars, and Jesuit priests to court. Under Shah Jahan, the tone shifted visibly toward more orthodox Islamic practice although religious coexistence remained the official baseline policy.

Akbar’s Affinity for Art

The court painting style begun by Akbar combines closely observed reality with fantasy. In the 1570s, he commissioned the Hamza-Nama (Book of Hamza) — one of the earliest examples of Mughal painting chronicling the exploits of Muslim hero Hamza and his followers as they battle demons, giants, and supernatural forces (see example below).

The Hamza-Nama demonstrates the new and distinctively Mughal style of painting combining Safavid Iranian conventions with local Hindu pictorial traditions. Funded by the imperial treasury, Akbar’s workshops were staffed by artisans from across the empire, merging their different techniques. The Tasvir Khana (painting workshop) employed more than 200 painters, the majority of whom were Hindu, with Muslim, Persian, and Central Asian masters. Other workshops produced textiles, books, jewellery, gold and silverware, perfumes, medicines, and carpets.

The focus on artisans is evident alongside Karkhanas (workshops, ateliers) 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.

To 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 this piece had once been kept in Akbar’s mother’s library. At the same time, European styles were also absorbed via paintings brought by missionaries.

Jahangir’s Court Dazzles!

Inheriting a wealthy and stable kingdom, Jahangir continued his father’s legacy by encouraging his artists to innovate and refine. The themes of multiculturalism and cosmopolitanism were further expanded. This section of the exhibition focuses on his lifestyle and enduring interest in nature.

The collaboration with European artists is evident in a painting of Jahangir on a throne designed for him by a French goldsmith from Bordeaux. There are botanical engravings by Flemish artisans and examples of how these were adapted by the Mughals for decoration. 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.

Jahangir’s 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.’”

Moghul art absorbed influences from Persia to Renaissance Europe. Portuguese merchants are depicted visiting the court and, mysteriously, speaking with angels as court artists try to make sense of their Christian religion! Cultural exchanges went both ways. A Mughal round shield, covered in mother of pearl patterns and pictures — which entered the collection of the Medici family in the 1590s — is on display, on loan from the Bargello Museum in Florence.

One of the best known paintings is by Bichitr titled Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaikh to Kings. (4) The emperor (see image) 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, Jama Masjid, and his best known construction, the Taj Mahal, perhaps India’s most famous monument. Accompanied by a short video of the Taj Mahal, the exhibition showcases architectural components to demonstrate construction designs, including inlaid marble, painted tiles, and a pierced marble screen mounted on a gallery wall.

Inspired by the Taj Mahal, floral motifs 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 untouched by 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 Khusrow: “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 (5) 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 pluralistic medieval history (the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal periods) in Indian school textbooks and the constant vilification of the country’s Muslim rulers as being foreign-born, 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 have done a better job of identifying and returning stolen art than the U.K., they continue to hide behind the fig leaf of dubious purchases that took place before the signing of treaties, like the 1970 UNESCO Convention on Cultural Property. They claim their acquisitions are legally valid, and that standard "decolonization" repatriation frameworks do not apply.

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

Also striking is that none of these outstanding samples of Mughal artworks 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!

However, such quibbles (even if legit) 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 (6) in art and religion as nonsensical! The Mughal court appropriated anything and everything, then improved, enhanced, and experimented with it! They reveled in borrowing and adapting!

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, the illustrated manuscript, as powerful visual tools to project divine right and absolute authority. Since much of the population was illiterate, highly stylized paintings served as a universal language, reinforcing their legitimacy.

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. The Akbar Nama shows the emperor in battle scenes, on elephants, directing sieges, receiving ambassadors, executing justice. The aim was to portray the rulers as competent, undisputed sovereigns.

Influenced by Sufi mysticism and European Christian art, Mughal artists painted a golden halo around the emperor's head to symbolize divine favor. They also incorporated lion and lamb motifs to signal that his rule brought justice and harmony to the universe. Manuscripts utilized crushed gold and silver (expensive materials) 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 in demand and distributed to local nobles and foreign rulers as luxury items and diplomatic gifts, serving as potent physical reminders of Mughal supremacy.

Culture as Soft Power

By the seventeenth century, the shared aesthetic of Mughal culture had spread far beyond its 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, windows for jharokha darshan (where the public could glimpse the ruler and be blessed), and ornamental stonework (jali screens).

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) Mughal Miniatures were book or manuscript illustrations and can mean any highly detailed artwork small enough to be leather bound, handheld, kept in folios or in albums (muraqqa). “Miniature” describes their smallness and attention to fine detail and is derived from a red lead paint called minium. Favorite themes were hunting and battle scenes, local flora and fauna, and court life.

(2) More than 300 years of Muslim rule preceded the Mughals in the form of the Delhi Sultanate, 1206 to 1526. The exhibition does not clarify that Persian was already the main lingua franca at court and the administrative language before the Mughals.

(3) In 1606, Jahangir executed Sikh Guru Arjan Dev whose call for universal equality challenged the rigid caste system of orthodox Hindu priests, the religious 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, abandoned the policy of tolerance altogether. He imposed Sharia law (Islamic law), tore down thousands of temples, and reimposed a punitive tax on Hindus.

(4) The painting Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaikh to Kings 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 (now bound in an album) 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 on the global art market in the early 20th century and are now with institutions like the National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, D.C. But they retain the "St. Petersburg" name to denote their historical album origin.

(5) The paradisal garden is a symmetrical walled-in Persian garden with water channels, flowers, and fruit trees. It comes from the word pairidaeza or paradise and is supposed to serve as a peaceful and harmonious heaven on earth.

(6) Buddhism kept changing and being influenced by local cultures, the further east it travelled. It’s natural for religions to evolve but we don’t call that cultural appropriation!

Ludi Joseph

Richmond, VA

August 10, 2026

Images from my iPhone