The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c18.115

v4.c18.115

Shāh Jahān had inherited some of the artistic taste of his father. His practical, more business-like nature, however, diverted this from the cultivation of painting and the accumulation of jewels and curiosities to bolder and more striking developments of art. On his accession he had taken from his treasury a large store of precious stones and gold and ordered the construction of the peacock throne with a canopy supported on twelve pillars adorned with enamel and jewels. Seven years later, at the celebration of the vernal equinox, he took his seat on it and the throne remained for a century one of the glories of the Mughul dynasty till Nādir Shāh after sacking Delhi took it away.¹