The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c23.s4.148

Language: English

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While at the principal seats of the Mughuls the white marble style was being maintained, a different phase of building was becoming manifest in the Punjab, notably at Lahore. This took the form of brick construction, with occasional sandstone additions, but owing its distinctive character to the glazed tile decoration with which its entire surfaces were often covered. The fact that Lahore was situated in an alluvial plain, and somewhat remote from any outcrop of stone, partly accounts for this brick and tile development, but not entirely. Since the days of the Ghaznavid occupation, the Punjab capital had been inclined to cultivate an independent architectural tradition, and instinctively to look to the north-west and beyond for its aesthetic inspiration. In the first half of the seventeenth century the Safavid art of Persia had attained its zenith, and for a time Lahore appears to have come under its powerful spell. It was not that the buildings of the Punjab were exact reproductions of those of Shāh ‘Abbās the Great; they displayed a certain individuality, but the brick construction was based on that prevailing in Persia, and the glazed tiles were of the same type as those produced in the famous kilns of Kāshān and other places on the Irānian plateau. The outstanding characteristic of this style of building, both in Persia and the Punjab, is its accentuation of colour, as it depends almost entirely for its expression on the brilliant display of patterns in faience.

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To such an extent was this colour scheme allowed to dominate the entire fabric that one of the fundamental principles of good building has been sacrificed, inasmuch as the designers subordinated intentionally all constructional emphasis in order to give precedence to the applied art. Eliminate this ornamentation and the building becomes a bald arrangement of flat surfaces without shadow or any form of relief, mouldings and string-courses are at a discount, the whole structure resolving itself into a mere background on which the tile-setter was encouraged to squander his art unrestrained. That such a procedure produced buildings having any claim to architectural merit is mainly due to the quality of this tile decoration, which is of the highest order, as the brilliantly designed arabesques in variegated hues lit by the eastern sun produce a vitality of effect disarming all criticism. In Lahore and its neighbourhood a large number of buildings were erected in this style during the reign of Shāh Jahān, but owing to the impermanent nature of their construction many of them are in ruins or have almost entirely disappeared. The immense mounds of spoil from the brick kilns of this period testify to the importance this industry assumed, so much so that one Buddhu whose tomb is near Lahore was appointed chief purveyor of bricks to the royal establishment.

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But in all these rubbish mounds, several of which have been excavated, not a trace has been discovered of the glazed tiles nor are there any definite records of such a craft ever having existed in this locality in the past. Panels of faience decorate the exterior of Rājā Mān Singh's palace at Gwālior, and the glazed earthenware of Multān and Sindh has long been a thriving handicraft, but it is clear from their style and technique that both these are the offspring of an entirely different art tradition. The Lahore tiles are of a type which is unmistakeable, and are of two distinct kinds, the "mosaic" and the "square". The former consist of pieces of a glazed composition cut to the shape and colour of the design, and are set together like the tesserae of a mosaic; the latter are usually 6 inches square and the pattern painted on them is carried across the joints to fill the required space. Exactly similar glazed decoration of both kinds is seen in profusion in the seventeenth-century buildings of Persia and ‘Irāq, most of it being made at the town of Kāshān, where the name for it is Kāshī, which is also the name by which this art is commonly known in Lahore. Some of the designs, notably those in the outer wall of Lahore fort, are much more Persian than Mughul in character, and include suggestions of Mithraic symbolism.

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Chardin, the French traveller, mentions at this time that Persia supplied India with large quantities of "earthenware", most probably referring to this trade in glazed tiles.¹ It seems not unlikely therefore that most if not all of this decoration was imported in bulk from Kāshān.