Gold dagger and scabbard set with 1685 rubies, diamonds and emeralds

Mughals evolved an art style that touched every man-made thing from great cities to the tiniest jade pins used for tying turbans.

The Mughal penchant for jewels is legendary, as is the jewels’ splendour and profusion. The Emperor Akbar adorned his body with gold, pearls and precious stones. His son, Jehangir, wore more precious stones than his father and would bedeck himself every day with diamonds, rubies, emeralds and pearls. Writing on the occasion of Jehangir’s departure from Ajmer in 1616, Sir Thomas Roe says, “…On his head he wore a rich turban with a plume of heron…on one side hung a ruby unset, as big as a walnut, on the other side a diamond as great, in the middle an emerald like a heart, much bigger. His sash was wreathed about with a chain of great pearls, rubies and diamonds drilled; about his neck he carried a chain of the most excellent pearls, three double so great I never saw, at his elbows, armlets set with diamonds, on his wrist three rows of several sorts. His hands bare, but almost on every finger a ring…” When participating in sporting events, the Mughals caparisoned their horses, falcons and elephants with gold and jewels.

Recently, a spectacular exhibition of jewels from the Mughal period, “Treasury of the World: Jewelled Arts of India in the Age of the Mughals” was arranged at the British Museum in London from May to September 2001. The exhibition included approximately 300 pieces spanning the Mughals’ reign from the mid 16th century to the early 18th century. In addition to extravagant jewellery, such as earrings, pendants, finger-rings and bracelets, the exhibition featured daggers with jewel encrusted scabbards and hilts, jewelled boxes, cups and gaming pieces.

The collection was on loan from Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah of Kuwait, who has been collecting Islamic art, and jewelled objects in particular from the mid 1970s and continues to do so till today. Most of the jewellery of the Mughal period is not inscribed with dates or with the names of who commissioned the item or who made it. However, the exhibition concentrated on the period between 1526 and 1707, and also included additional material from as early as the 4th century and some pieces from the 19th century. Spanning a large period of history, this body of tradition reveals the outstanding durability and longevity of some of the techniques of the time and an innovative approach to design.

An excerpt from the Jehangirnama reads, “On the same day Mir Jamaluddin Hussain’s offering was viewed. I liked everything he presented. There was a jewelled dagger he had fashioned himself. On the hilt a yellow carnelian had been set, and for brilliance and size no such carnelian had been seen before. There were also European carnelians that I liked and old emeralds fashioned in peculiar shape. The jeweller valued them at fifty thousand rupees. I increased the Mir’s rank by 1,000 suwar…”

Contemporary and extant miniature paintings depict the ostentatious display of Mughal jewels, as well as first hand accounts in Ain-e-Akbari, Emperor Akbar’s biography by Maulana Abul Fazl Allami. Add to this excerpts from the Jahangirnama, and descriptions from European travellers to the courts of the Mughals, and you have a mind-boggling view of the riches of the court. The Mughal emperors and their families adorned themselves with a profusion of precious gems, necklaces, wristbands, armbands, turban ornaments and more. But the uses of jewels extended beyond ornamentation to arms and armour, daggers with jewel encrusted scabbards and hilts, furniture and vessels, jewelled boxes and cups. From ancient times India was a major source for the trade in precious stones, a fact the Mughal conquerors discovered for themselves in the 16th century. Diamond mines near Golconda in the Deccan were the largest in the world until the 18th century.

Jade pendant inlaid with gold, made for the Emperor Shah Jehan

Gold pendant set with diamonds, rubies and emeralds

Mughal patronage provided the platform for the development of existing traditions in jewel making, as well as the creation of innovative techniques. The kundun method of setting stones in pure gold was perfected by artisans in the Mughal period. Here, substances were fused at room temperature. Another technique that was developed was the inlaying of stones (like jade) with gold and other precious stones. Precious metals with hammered relief decoration and enamelling, the incrustation of jade with patterns, with stem-work of gold and leaves and flowers in stones were techniques that produced a treasure such as the world had never seen. Each of these techniques was meticulously described and displayed at the Al-Sabah exhibition, and illustrated by the relevant jewelled item.

The skilled craftsman was adequately recompensed by the emperor and given an environment conducive to creative endeavour. Aspiring to royal approval, the artisan did not compromise his art to suit popular tastes. Embellishment was always sophisticated, never ornate or vulgar. Akbar, for example, personally inspected and rewarded craftsmen in proportion to their skill. The arts of the lapidary and the jeweller benefited from this attention. A crowning example of this was Shah Jehan’s Peacock Throne — made of solid gold, studded with gems valued at that time at sixteen lac rupees, “the inner roof of the throne was enamelled and the outer covered with rubies and other jewels; twelve pillars of emerald supported the roof, which was surmounted by figures of two peacocks ablaze with precious stones”. The emperor Shah Jehan was a great builder, but also had an expert eye in the judging of gemstones. Jewelled motifs in his outstanding piece de resistance, the Taj Mahal, inlaid with precious stones, were personally supervised by the emperor.

That so many remarkable jewels have survived despite the depradations of history owes to the fact that the Mughals were tireless collectors. The pity is that at the end of the day, few jewels remained in the subcontinent. Some were taken to Iran in the 18th century and those left over were taken to Britain by India’s colonisers in the 19th century.

It is fortunate that another Muslim royal house, the Al-Sabah, stepped in during the closing years of the twentieth century to salvage this unique Mughal legacy. As such, the Al Sabahs have done Mughal art and world heritage a great service.

One of the highlights of the Al-Sabah collection is the relief-carved hard stones, including nine emeralds, ranging from 17 to 235 carats, carved by skilled Mughal craftsmen. The collection also includes a large number of gemstones with historical inscriptions and over twenty spinels with inscriptions dedicated to the Mughals. Very large gems, especially red spinels called “Balas rubies” were treasured by the Mughals. An extraordinary 249.3 carat spinel, with six royal inscriptions, is in the Al-Sabah collection, dating back to the Timurid leader Ulugh Beg (1447-1449). This stone, known as “Talisman of the Throne” was presented to the emperor Jehangir in 1621 by the ambassadors of Shah Abbas the Great of Iran, whose name is also inscribed on the stone. A few months later Jehangir gave the stone to his son, Shah Jehan and it was eventually inserted into the famous Peacock Throne.

Babar and Humayun laid the foundations of the Mughal empire in India. But it was to Akbar that is owed the exponential growth of the wealth of the empire. This enabled his son Jehangir to be a royal connoisseur par excellence of jewels and other art forms. In turn, Shah Jehan created the Taj Mahal, in which are married the art of the builder, the craftsman and the jeweller.

Finally, even the puritan Aurangzeb Alamgir, the last of the Great Mughals, could not ignore this most seductive of his ancestors’ habits. He too added notably to the treasury.

Kundan pendant set with rubies and emeralds

Fluted jade pot with handle knob carved as a flower bud 

Ruby and gold cameo of
Shah Jehan