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Mughal Lapidaries and the Inherited Modes of Production

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Gems in the Early Modern World

Part of the book series: Europe's Asian Centuries ((EAC))

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Abstract

The well-established land trade routes utilized before the formation of the Mughal Empire facilitated the transmission of skills, techniques, materials, and artisans related to the lapidary arts. The intellectual, personnel, and technological transit in the lapidary arts under the Mughal Empire is the focus of this chapter, with an emphasis on the ‘inherited tradition’ of hard-stone abrasion, the art’s apex under the reign of Shah Jahan (r. 1628–1658), and the establishment of what this chapter argues is a recognizable Mughal imperial programme in the lapidary arts. This chapter uses object-based analysis, primary and secondary research to situate—and critically consider—the objects fabricated in the imperial atelier, and examine the hybrid and syncretic nature of the Mughal imperial programme in the lapidary arts.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder noted Hindustan’s ‘glory as being the great producer of the most costly gems’. Pliny, The Natural History of Pliny (London: Forgotten Books, 2013), book 6, 416.

  2. 2.

    Interestingly, in the name of Akbar’s first Hindu wife, Man Moti, Moti means ‘pearl’, indicative of the reverence for the gem. The preference for pearls is discussed later in this chapter. Paul Stevens and Rahul Sapra, ‘Akbar’s Dream: Moghul Toleration and English/British Orientalism’, Modern Philology 104, no. 3 (2007): 379–411.

  3. 3.

    Summarized as: ‘enamelling had become the decoration of choice for imperial commissions’. Beyond Extravagance: A Royal Collection of Gems and Jewels, ed. Amin Jaffer, Jack Ogden, Vivienne Becker, Judy Rudoe, and Katherine Prior (New York: Assouline, 2013), 64.

  4. 4.

    Roger Keverne, Jade: With Over 600 Photographs of Jades from Every Continent (London: Aquamarine, 2010), 280.

  5. 5.

    Jewelled Treasures from the Mughal Court [catalogue to the Exhibition Jewelled Treasures from the Mughal Courts Held at the Marriott Gulf Hotel, Doha, Qatar, 21–29 March 2002], ed. Tan Leng (London: The Islamic Art Society, 2002).

  6. 6.

    The author states: ‘The inscription of ruzbihan (“Those who enjoy fortunate days or prosperity”) on the falcon therefore places it firmly within the reign of Shah Jahan, as well as showing that it was part of the Private Jewels of Shah Jahan, while the quality of the object leaves no doubt that it could only have been a product of the Imperial Mughal workshop’. Ibid., 12.

  7. 7.

    The field would benefit from further research on the object, so as to arrive at a scholarly consensus about the falcon’s origins. To my knowledge, at the time of the publication of this chapter, nothing has been published that calls into question the origin of the Falcon. There are a few reasons why I have issue with this object to have been fabricated in the Mughal karkhana. Firstly, the employment of onyx (as seen on the white breast enamel and cabochon claw inserts) is rarely seen on objects commissioned by the Mughal emperors. Secondly, the ‘Buddha lips’ motif, most commonly seen in areas of Buddhist tradition, has not before been decisively documented in the Mughal canon. Thirdly, the presence of the semi-precious onyx, in conjunction with the cabochon sapphire beak, is problematic when attempting to situate this piece’s fabrication under the watchful eyes of very design-minded Mughal patrons.

  8. 8.

    Jewelled Treasures from the Mughal Courts, ed. Leng, 12.

  9. 9.

    The Shahnama of Firdausi, trans. Arthur Warner and Edmond Warner (Kessinger Publishing, 2007), 126.

  10. 10.

    Ibid.

  11. 11.

    S.S. Jacob, Thomas Holbein Hendley and William Griggs, Jeypore Enamels (New Delhi: Aryan Books International, 2008), 1.

  12. 12.

    Ibid., 7.

  13. 13.

    ‘Akbar’s Dream: Moghul Toleration and English/British Orientalism’, 399.

  14. 14.

    Ram Nath, Private Life of the Mughals of India (1526–1803 A. D.), reprint (New Delhi: Rupa, 2005), 44.

  15. 15.

    Beyond Extravagance, ed. Jaffer, 64.

  16. 16.

    Jewelled Treasures from the Mughal Courts, ed. Leng, 8.

  17. 17.

    Ibid., 12.

  18. 18.

    Stronge, Made for Mughal Emperors, 174.

  19. 19.

    The author observed this process at the Amrapali Jewels workshop outside of Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, on a research trip funded by the Anthony Gardner Fellowship, Tuesday, 10 November, 2015.

  20. 20.

    Oppi Untracht, Traditional Jewelry of India (New York: Thames & Hudson, 2008), 372.

  21. 21.

    G. F. Herbert Smith, Gemstones and Their Distinctive Characters (Montana: Kessinger Publishing, 2010), 91.

  22. 22.

    Jewelled Treasures from the Mughal Courts, ed. Leng, 12.

  23. 23.

    Ibid., 11.

  24. 24.

    Ibid., 10.

  25. 25.

    Ibid., 10.

  26. 26.

    Jackson, Peter, The Mongols and the Islamic World: From Conquest to Conversion (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2017), 225.

  27. 27.

    Komaroff, Linda, Stefano Carboni, and Metropolitan Museum of Art, ed., The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256–1353 (New York: Yale University Press, 2002).

  28. 28.

    Ibid.

  29. 29.

    Tucker, ‘Genghis Khan’s Treasures’, Smithsonian.

  30. 30.

    Abdul Aziz, The Imperial Treasury of the Indian Mughuls, Vols. I and II (Delhi: Idarah-i Adabiyat-i Delli, 1972), 415.

  31. 31.

    Roya Marefat, ‘The Heavenly City of Samarkand’, The Wilson Quarterly, 16, no. 3 (1992), 34.

  32. 32.

    Ibid., 34.

  33. 33.

    Ibid., 35.

  34. 34.

    Marefat, ‘The Heavenly City of Samarkand’, 33–35.

  35. 35.

    Ibid.

  36. 36.

    British Museum, The Collection Online, accession number: 1959, 1120.1 (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=255413&partId=1&searchText=Ulugh+Beg+&images=true&page=1).

  37. 37.

    Soucek, Priscilla, ‘Persian Artists in Mughal India: Influences and Transformations’, Muqarnas 4 (1987): 166–181, on 166.

  38. 38.

    Aziz, The Imperial Treasury, 415.

  39. 39.

    Ibid., 1.

  40. 40.

    The economic historian Abdul Aziz stated, ‘the upper reaches of art were approached in the work of goldsmiths…’, Ibid., 6.

  41. 41.

    Akbar, The Ain-i-Akbari: Gazetteer and Administrative Manual of Akbar’s Empire and Past History of India], ed. Abu-l-Fadl Ibn-Mubarak, 2 vols. (Delhi: Low Price Publications, 2008).

  42. 42.

    Cole, Juan R.I., ‘The Indian Subcontinent’, Iranian Studies, International Society of Iranian Studies 31 (1998).

  43. 43.

    Aziz, The Imperial Treasury, 57.

  44. 44.

    Ibid., 14.

  45. 45.

    Beyond Extravagance, ed. Amin Jaffer, 7.

  46. 46.

    Aziz, The Imperial Treasury, 7.

  47. 47.

    Chaudhary, Labour in Mughal India, 67.

  48. 48.

    This knowledge could also have been embodied in the ancient treatises on gemstones from Hindustan, the Ratna Pariksa (sixth century) and the Agastimata (tenth century), which described the applications of these gems in the Hindu tradition, and were now interpreted by Persian and Central Asian patrons, texts and teachings. France Borel and John Bigelow Taylor, eds., The Splendor of Ethnic Jewelry: From the Colette and Jean-Pierre Ghysels Collection (New York: H. N. Abrams, 1994), 106.

  49. 49.

    ‘Mohs hardness’, in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th edition (London, 1995), vol. 8, 255.

  50. 50.

    It is interesting to note that the English word ‘corundum’ derives from Tamil ‘kuruntam’ and is akin to Sanskrit ‘kuruvinda’, which can be seen as a parallel to the Mughal adaptation and synthesis evidenced in this paper. ‘Corundum, n.’, in OED Online (Oxford University Press, 2018), www.oed.com/view/Entry/42124 (accessed 24 January 2018).

  51. 51.

    An exception to this is the spinel. It can be seen in the Ain-i-Akbari that the first, and therefore most important section of the treasury, was for spinels. This valuation may be due to a geological component, as spinels come from the Transoxiana region, the home of the Mughals ancestors. This may be why spinels continued to be revered, even over diamonds. Susan Stronge, ‘The Myth of the Timur Ruby’, Jewellery Studies 7 (1996): 5–12.

  52. 52.

    Sapphire would not be worn by itself due to its association with the planet Saturn, typically considered a malefic planet. It is likely due to this association that it is not included in this hierarchy of valuations. Stronge, ‘The Myth of the Timur Ruby’.

  53. 53.

    There is an interesting correlation between the hardness of the mineral and its value, evidenced by their hierarchy of valuation: diamond is a 10 on the Mohs scale, corundum is nine, jade is seven.

  54. 54.

    Beyond Extravagance, ed. Jaffer, 56.

  55. 55.

    Court artist (s), ‘A Lapidary (using a bow lathe)’ (Detail from the border of a page from the Gulshan [Rose Garden] album of the emperor Jahangir). 1600–1605. Illustration. Náprstek Museum, Inv. No. A/12182.

  56. 56.

    Stephen Markel, ‘Inception and Maturation in Mughal Jades’, Marg: A Magazine of the Arts 4, no. 2 (1992): 49–64.

  57. 57.

    Stephen Markel, ed., The World of Jade (Bombay: Marg Publications, 1992), 5.

  58. 58.

    Ibid., 5.

  59. 59.

    Keverne, Jade, 280.

  60. 60.

    Markel, The World of Jade, 1.

  61. 61.

    Heavenly Crafted: Selected Mughal Jades from the Palace Museum [catalogue to the Exhibition Held at the Art Museum, Chinese University of Hong Kong 28 November 2015–28 February 2016] (Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2016), 46.

  62. 62.

    Beyond Extravagance, ed. Amin Jaffer, 37.

  63. 63.

    Arjun Appadurai, ed., The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2013), 32.

  64. 64.

    Aziz, The Imperial Treasury, 527.

  65. 65.

    Kris E. Lane, Colour of Paradise: The Emerald in the Age of Gunpowder Empires (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010), 9.

  66. 66.

    Lane, Colour of Paradise, 86.

  67. 67.

    Beyond Extravagance, ed. Amin Jaffer, 387.

  68. 68.

    Interestingly, Jahangir is the son of Akbar’s Hindu wife, Man Moti. Aziz, The Imperial Treasury, 271.

  69. 69.

    Susan Stronge, Nima Poovaya-Smith and J. C. Harle, A Golden Treasury: Jewellery from the Indian Subcontinent, Indian Art Series/Victoria and Albert Museum (New York: Rizzoli in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum and Grantha Corp, 1988), 30.

  70. 70.

    George Michell, Mumtaz Currim and Carmen Kagal, eds., Mughal Style: The Art & Architecture of Islamic India (Mumbai: India Book House, 2007), 11.

  71. 71.

    Ibid., 11.

  72. 72.

    Som Prakash Verma, Flora and Fauna in Mughal Art (Mumbai: Marg Publications on behalf of the National Centre for the Performing Arts, 1999), 25.

  73. 73.

    Ibid., 26.

  74. 74.

    Verma, Flora and Fauna, 21–2.

  75. 75.

    Ibid., 26.

  76. 76.

    Mughal Art, Swarup, 45.

  77. 77.

    Michell, Mughal Style,11.

  78. 78.

    Strone, ‘The Myth of the Timur Ruby’.

  79. 79.

    Meher McArthur, The Arts of Asia: Materials, Techniques, Styles (London: Thames & Hudson, 2005), 41.

  80. 80.

    Markel, ‘Inception and Maturation in Mughal Jades’, 51.

  81. 81.

    Jaffer, Beyond Extravagance, 387.

  82. 82.

    Aziz, The Imperial Treasury, 527.

  83. 83.

    Michell, Mughal Style, 10.

  84. 84.

    Swarup, Mughal Art, 24.

  85. 85.

    There are characteristically ‘Mughal’ forms and materials in many contemporary workshops, such the ‘Royal’ collection of Gem Palace and the ‘Heritage’ collection of Amrapali. Several Mughal styles have broached the niche market and can be seen in ‘navaratna’ pieces, flower petal motifs, and so on.

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  1. Independent Scholar, New York, USA

    Taylor L. Viens

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  1. History Department, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

    Michael Bycroft

  2. History of Art, Science and Technology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Sven Dupré

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Viens, T.L. (2019). Mughal Lapidaries and the Inherited Modes of Production. In: Bycroft, M., Dupré, S. (eds) Gems in the Early Modern World. Europe's Asian Centuries. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96379-2_10

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