Flourishing India – Textiles From the Mughal Empire

Velvets Among the most luxurious textiles are silk velvets with a multi-coloured pile and metal threads. Immigrant Persian masters who arrived around 1600 enriched Indian velvet weaving by introducing innovative techniques and motifs. | Velvet carpet, western India (Gujarat) or Iran (Yazd), early 17th century, silk and metal threads, inv. no. 5831

Textile Furnishings The interior furnishings of Indian palaces consisted mainly of textiles. Silk hangings adorned the walls or were draped over doorways as roll-up curtains. Carpets and bolsters with decorative covers provided comfortable seating on the floor. | Velvet hanging with large plant, India (Ahmedabad or Delhi), mid-17th century, silk and metal threads, inv. no. 5799

Textiles in Pictures Courtly artists painted miniatures showing scenes from the lives of the Mughal emperors and Hindu mythology. These colourful works illustrate the many different uses to which textiles were put. | Emperor Akbar on a Hunting Expedition, Pigment painting on paper, Delhi or Agra (Uttar Pradesh), attributed to Nar Singh, 1595–1600

Tapestry weavings from Central India In the nineteenth century, the Deccan Plateau saw the production of fine textiles with a cotton warp and gold threads in the weft. These feature decorative panels with brightly coloured flowers and birds worked in silk threads in tapestry technique. | Border with peacocks and parakeets, tapestry weaving in silk, cotton and metal threads, western or central India, mid-19th century, inv. no. 1540

Export Wares The high quality of their material and the lightfastness of their colours made resist-dyed cottons from Gujarat in western India much sought-after, even in other parts of the world. They were shipped as far as Egypt and Indonesia. | Fragment of a hanging with figural scenes, cotton, western India (Gujarat), 14th–15th century, inv. no. 5862