Mughal Empire Analysis

The Mughal Empire is known as one of the most influential empires in the world because

the Mughals conquered most of India until the 1700s through their religion. “The Mughal

Empire grew out of descendants of the Mongol Empire who were living in Turkestan in the 15th

century. They had become Muslims and assimilated the culture of the Middle East, while

keeping elements of their Far Eastern roots” (BBC News). Mughals invaded India in 1526 but

scholars disagree which time period the empire collapsed—the 1700s or 1857. For the purpose of

this paper, I will use the latter date—1857—as the end of the Mughal Empire. The Mughal

Empire is known for its rich cultural achievements including the Taj Mahal. What may be

intriguing to most may be the value the Mughal

1: Anklets (unknown) Fig. 2: dastband almas (unknown) In order to see how these anklets symbolize femininity, we can compare them to another anklet from the Al-Thani Collection worn by a man—-dastband almas. First, we can do so by comparing the materials used and then the designs of both anklets. A significant difference between the two objects are the usage of glass beads. The glass beads on the bottom of figure 1 would have made a jingling noise, similar to the sound of a wind chime. In contrast, the dastband almas does not contain any beads on it. Figure 2 is made of gold and diamonds whereas figure 1 incorporates the use of pearls, gold, glass beads and sapphires.

What is analogous among the anklets is a common home, Rajasthan. Both objects were made relatively in the same area. Due to the era the anklets were made, they both contain some sort of geometric design. Pattern—floral and geometric—is another distinctive feature of court art, whether spread across a wall, on a book cover or border of an album leaf, around a