sculptured, in accordance with the whole scheme of decoration.
Naturally, in the general idea of the monument Shah Jahān preferred to follow his own family traditions, rather than those of the Bijāpūr dynasty, and the Sunni propriety of his great-grandfather's tomb at Delhi no doubt appealed to him. The florid sculpture of the Shiah Sultan's tomb was too suggestive of Akbar's catholic tastes; but he could easily excel in the richness of the materials used, for Shah Jahān was the richest monarch in the world, and was prodigal in the spending of his wealth. Nūr Jahān's and Mumtāz's fancy for the quasi jewelled marble dictated the choice of materials and the process of decoration. Shah Jahān's Hindu craftsmen with cunning hands made the most brilliant pietra dura work in the Persian style,[1] carefully avoiding offence to Sunni prejudices. In the lovely pierced trellis-work which filled the windows and formed the screen with which the cenotaphs were enclosed it is likely that Bijāpūr craftsmen were also employed. Bijāpūr after Ibrāhīm's death could not hold its own politically against the Mogul power, and lost its prestige as a great building centre, while the magnificence of Shah Jahān's building projects lured the best craftsmen towards Agra and Delhi. The Tāj Mahall is, in fact, exactly such a building as one would expect to be created in India of the seventeenth century by a group of master-builders inheriting the traditions of Buddhist and Hindu building, but adapting them to the taste of a cultured orthodox Muhammadan monarch who had all the wealth of India at his disposal. The plan, which consists of a central domed chamber surrounded by
- ↑ The designs of the jewelled inlay were evidently inspired by the borders of the pictures painted by the court painters of the time.
