Each Mughal emperor had an impact on the construction and design of the carpets woven during his reign. Because Persian carpets had originally been imported, Persian taste is strongly evident in the carpets, in the designs and the themes of gardens and animals in combat. Other influences exist as well, including motifs from China and Europe.
In all the arts, the Mughal legacy included a love of and respect for the natural world, an interest in the historical record, an insistence on high standards of workmanship, and a synthesis of Persian vases, European, and Indian tradition.
Many of the rugs from Akbar’s reign are adaptations of Persian designs in which Indian animals and birds, monster masks, vases and flowering plants are combined in an inventive and spirited style. A fragment from the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art shows grotesques and composite-animal forms--some issuing from another's head--arranged as if they were scrolling vines.
This design may have originated from Indian traditions of symbolic and mythological animals or from European grotesques of the same period.
The reign of Jahangir, 1605-27
The carpets produced during Jahangir’s reign mirror his interest in the plants and animals of the natural world. Taking the Persian style as a point of departure, carpets continued to incorporate scrolling vines, flowering plants, and more naturalistic animals, either in a pictorial or overall pattern. In both cases, the designs reflected the influence of manuscript paintings. The carpets of Jahangir’s reign were marked by increased technical refinement, both in design and construction.
The reign of Shah Jahan, 1628-58
During the reign of Shah Jahan, flowers moved from being secondary design elements to being primary motifs. The carpets literally bloom with images of naturalistic or fantastic flowers, depicted in subtle shadings and great detail. The flower style predominated in all the arts, from the marble inlays and openwork screens of the Taj Mahal to jewelry, manuscript margins and bindings, textiles, metalwork, ivory, jade, glass, and wood.
The reign of Aurangzeb 1658-1707
During the reign of Aurangzeb, floral carpets continued to be popular. Their design changed to incorporate smaller flowers, rigidly executed so that the overall effect was fussier and busier. This millefleur style could be executed as an allover pattern or with a definite orientation, as in the niche rugs.
Chinese influences
Chinese influences found their way into Mughal carpets through Persian art. Wispy clouds, called tschi, sometimes appear in the rugs. Fantasy animals with flames streaming from their bodies, similar to those found in Chinese art, were depicted in both Persian and Indian carpets. The flames symbolized power.
European influences
Visiting emissaries and representatives from the Dutch and English East India companies brought European paintings, tapestries, and books to the Mughal court. The artists were influenced by these contacts. Compare this detail of a millefleur niche carpet with the millefleur design of the Unicorn in Captivity Tapestry.
Shah Jahan is sometimes depicted with a halo in the tradition of Renaissance religious paintings.
European herbals, books containing block-printed black-and-white images of whole plants in precise botanical detail, may have influenced Mughal paintings of plants and flowers. This example from a floral carpet is very much like an herbal representation.
