The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c23.s4.148.3

v4.c23.s4.148.3

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.