Mughal Majesty in London: Revisiting the Mughal Legacy at Victoria and Albert Museum in London

Tucked in the heart of London in South Kensington, the Victoria and Albert Museum’s landmark exhibition, The Great Mughals: Art, Architecture and Opulence was nothing short of spectacular.

V&A Exhibit

Since opening last November, the V&A museum has been drawing crowds with this display of Mughal splendour, a deep dive into what many historians hail as the dynasty’s “Golden Age” the century between 1560 and 1660 under its most celebrated Emperors: Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan. The V&A museum has been long home to some of the most storied objects seized during British incursions into the Indian subcontinent such as Tipu Sultan’s mechanical Tiger or the throne of Maharajah Ranjit Singh. From gemstone-carved

wine cups once sipped from in the Mughal court, to illustrations of Hindu deities rendered in opaque pigments to jewelled weapons forged for conquest across modern-day India and Pakistan; this exhibition is a meticulously curated celebration of the Mughal’s artistic achievements.

Following the loss of his Central Asian homelands in modern-day Uzbekistan, Babur established a base in Kabul before sweeping into the Indian subcontinent, defeating Ibrahim Lodi at Panipat in 1526 and founding the Mughal Empire. His son Humayun briefly lost control of much of the empire, which had to be resurrected by his son Akbar the first and perhaps greatest of the “Great Mughals,” who expanded and stabilised the empire across northern and central India.

Jewelled Mughal Daggers from the time of Jahangir

The exhibition is arranged chronologically by emperor, allowing visitors to trace the

evolution of Mughal art through the reigns of Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan. Akbar’s section is especially compelling. Despite being illiterate and martial in character, Akbar was an impassioned patron of the arts, setting in motion the cultural flourishing that Shah Jahan would later refine.

Though of Turkic lineage and descended from Chagatai-speaking rulers, Akbar Persianized the court for cultural prestige. A devout Muslim, he nevertheless pursued religious inclusivity, forging alliances with Hindu communities and encouraging syncretism. One of his most striking commissions was a Persian translation of the Ramayana, produced by teams of Brahmin scholars and Persian scribes. The accompanying illustrations are particularly revealing, rendered in the emerging Mughal style, which is different from the earlier traditions of Indian painting in which Akbar’s Hindu artists would have been trained in.

Muslim Pilgrim learns a lesson in piety from a Brahman - Mughal courtworkshop Lahore

Mughal art, while deeply influenced by Persian aesthetics, also absorbed elements of the European Renaissance. In a painting titled ‘A Muslim Pilgrim Learns a Lesson in Piety from a Brahman’ the sense of depth, misty blue background and billowing clothes all reflect the absorption of European conventions by Akbar’s artists. Whilst the Mughals took a curiosity in Hindu belief, they were similarly attracted to the mystic Sufi movement in the Indian subcontinent. This spiritual yearning of the Mughals is evoked through a Sufi dervish’s wine drinking horn and a set of tiles from a long-lost Sufi shrine in Lahore, present day Pakistan. These quiet relics of devotion are displayed in Shah Jahan’s section of the exhibition and echo the mystical traditions of Sufi thought.

As the Mughal Empire waned, its artists and artisans scattered, carrying their craft to new courts and emerging centres of power. Across the subcontinent, Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh rulers reimagined the architectural grandeur of Shah Jahan in regional expressions through domes, arches, and inlay work echoing long after the authority of the Mughals had faded. Even in England today in the English language, the legacy lingers: the word ‘Mogul’ is associated for somebody with tremendous power and wealth.

As visitors reach the end of the exhibition, they are met with the words of the Sufi saint Amir Khusrow, inscribed above a row of ceramic tiles: “If there is a paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this!” It’s a fitting epigraph suggesting that for a moment in history, the Mughal Golden Age came close.

(All images belong to Contributing Writer Avimukt Verma)