The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c23.s4.148.1

v4.c23.s4.148.1

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.