Mughal Court

One of the great figures of Akbar's workshop, credited with bringing modelling and depth to a tradition that had preferred flatness. Worked on illustrated manuscripts alongside dozens of other named artists. Mughal painters did not sign their work; the imperial library wrote the names in the margin afterwards, which is the only reason we know him at all.

Find it on the floor: The Mughal Atelier

Won an empire at Panipat and spent his memoirs complaining about the heat, the lack of good melons, and the absence of proper gardens. Then built the gardens.

Find it on the floor: The Mughal Atelier

Exiled to Persia, returned fifteen years later, reconquered Delhi, and died six months on after tripping on his library staircase. His widow built him the tomb that the Taj is descended from.

Find it on the floor: The Mughal Atelier

Ground lapis for blue and used a brush sometimes made from a single hair to paint an entire hunting party smaller than your thumb.

Find it on the floor: The Mughal Atelier

Wanders with a one-string instrument singing about a bird in a cage that nobody can catch. Refuses institutional religion, patronage, and, generally, shoes.

Find it on the floor: The Mughal Atelier

The greatest singer of the age, credited by legend with lighting lamps by raga and calling rain. Every major North Indian gharana still traces its lineage back through him.

Find it on the floor: The Mughal Atelier

Measured the empire's land, classified the soil, averaged the yields over ten years, and set a tax rate that could actually be paid. The most consequential spreadsheet in Indian history.

Find it on the floor: The Mughal Atelier

Akbar's interfaith debating hall. It got heated often enough that he eventually restricted attendance, which is the most relatable thing any emperor has done.

Find it on the floor: The Mughal Atelier

Refreshes the app every eleven minutes. Statistically, it will clear. Emotionally, it never will.

Find it on the floor: The Mughal Atelier

Built the Taj, the Red Fort, the Jama Masjid and a new capital, then spent his last eight years imprisoned by his own son in a fort with a view of the first one.

Find it on the floor: The Mughal Atelier

Travelled with the army on campaign for nineteen years. The monument is famous; she is mostly remembered as its reason, which is its own kind of erasure.

Find it on the floor: The Mughal Atelier

Had fifty Upanishads translated into Persian, from where they reached Europe and startled Schopenhauer. Lost the succession war to his brother and was executed for heresy in 1659.

Find it on the floor: The Mughal Atelier

Around 20,000 workers, 1,000 elephants, marble from Makrana, jade from China, turquoise from Tibet, and 28 kinds of inlaid stone. The story about the hands being cut off is not supported by any contemporary record.

Find it on the floor: The Mughal Atelier

Administered Pune while her husband served elsewhere, raised her son on the epics, and held the state together during his imprisonment. The strategy was hers as much as anyone's.

Find it on the floor: The Mughal Atelier

Took seven years to build and was carried off by Nadir Shah in a single afternoon along with the Koh-i-Noor. It has never been seen since.

Find it on the floor: The Mughal Atelier

Perfectly symmetrical except for one thing: Shah Jahan's own cenotaph, added later, sits off-centre beside his wife's. The only asymmetry in the building is the man who commissioned it.

Find it on the floor: The Marble Skyline

A complete imperial city in red sandstone, abandoned after about fourteen years. The usual explanation is water. It remains almost perfectly preserved because nobody stayed to modernise it.

Find it on the floor: The Marble Skyline