#shahjahan #mumtazmahal #bebadaklhan #inlaywork #pietradura #agra #mughalarchitecture #mughal – Rana Safvi https://ranasafvi.com A blog exploring India's Ganga Jamuni Tehzeeb or its rich multi plural multi cultural heritage via its adab, tehzeeb & tareekh Sat, 13 May 2023 05:24:15 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.2 https://ranasafvi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/image-7-75x75.jpg #shahjahan #mumtazmahal #bebadaklhan #inlaywork #pietradura #agra #mughalarchitecture #mughal – Rana Safvi https://ranasafvi.com 32 32 179612229 Inlay work/ Parchinkari / pietra dura on the Taj Mahal, Agra https://ranasafvi.com/inlay-work-parchinkari-pietra-dura-on-the-taj-mahal-agra/ https://ranasafvi.com/inlay-work-parchinkari-pietra-dura-on-the-taj-mahal-agra/#respond Sat, 13 May 2023 05:24:15 +0000 https://ranasafvi.com/?p=38595 When Mumtaz Mahal passed away, Bebadal Khan wrote the chronogram for her that yielded 1040 — the Hijri year of her death, corresponding to 1631 AD: “Ja-i-Mumtaz Mahal jannat baad [May the abode of Mumtaz Mahal be Paradise].” And so, the grief-stricken husband took it upon himself to build a veritable paradise as her resting place.
the Taj architects were tasked with first making a plan for a hasht bahisht tomb [an irregular octagonal architectural plan which symbolises the eight levels of heaven] in the char bagh. However, for the emperor who mourned his wife so greatly that he wore white clothes for two years and shunned jewellery and itr, just getting the design right was not enough. Physical flowers are ephemeral — there had to be flowers cast in stone to last forever. And so, the best talent was gathered to make it happen. In fact, the carving of the flowers and their inlay work went on for much longer, even after the main tomb itself had been built.
Indians were already familiar with inlay work, the insertion of stone on stone in prepared grooves. This was called #parchinkari in Persian. The Taj Mahal, though, didn’t just have parchinkari, but elaborate and intricate inlay work where precious stones were inlaid into #marble to create beautiful flowers.
The #Mughals had become acquainted with the technique through European visitors. This involved cutting the precious and semi-precious stones into fine pieces and shapes, and then inlaying these innumerable pieces into marble to create a single flower pattern.
Fanny Parkes, a British woman who lived in India from 1822-1845 and kept a journal of her stay, had the patience to count the number of pieces that went into the making of each flower in the marble screen surrounding the cenotaphs on the upper level of the Taj. A mind-boggling 72 pieces went into each flower and there were 50 such flowers on the screen around each cenotaph!
The inlay artists had plenty of riches to work with — agates were brought from Yemen, cornelians from Arabia, amethyst from Persia, malachite from Russia, turquoise from upper Tibet, diamonds from central India, onyxes from the Deccan and garnets from Bundelkhand.
#tajmahal
Drawings v&a museum

]]> https://ranasafvi.com/inlay-work-parchinkari-pietra-dura-on-the-taj-mahal-agra/feed/ 0 38595 Saber with Scabbard,grip, 18th or 19th century; guard and scabbard, 19th century; blade, dated A.H. 1099/A.D. 1688; decoration on blade, 19th century~ Met Museum https://ranasafvi.com/saber-with-scabbardgrip-18th-or-19th-century-guard-and-scabbard-19th-century-blade-dated-a-h-1099-a-d-1688-decoration-on-blade-19th-century-met-museum/ Tue, 26 Mar 2019 05:31:22 +0000 https://ranasafvi.com/saber-with-scabbardgrip-18th-or-19th-century-guard-and-scabbard-19th-century-blade-dated-a-h-1099-a-d-1688-decoration-on-blade-19th-century-met-museum/

Gallery Text :

The most important ceremony in the inauguration of many Islamic rulers was the investiture with a sword, rather than a crown. This extravagantly decorated saber traditionally is said to have been refitted in 1876 for the investiture of the Ottoman sultan Murad V (reigned May 30–August 31, 1876). He suffered a nervous breakdown before the ceremony and subsequently was deposed and kept a prisoner until his death in 1904.

The sword was probably assembled by a court jeweler, using a seventeenth-century Iranian blade, an eighteenth-century Indian jade grip, and gem-studded gold and gilt-brass mounts of contemporary workmanship. The emerald near the top of the scabbard opens to reveal a secret compartment containing a gold coin marked with the name of Süleyman the Magnificent (1494–1566), the most powerful Ottoman ruler of the sixteenth century. The underside of the emerald is inscribed with the phrase “According to God’s will.”

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/22871

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