More prints from the Dara Shikoh Album
A Moghul Masterpiece
September to October
Exhibition at
Aurelec Cafeteria & Art gallery
open from 8am to 5pm
The Dara Shikoh album is a collection of paintings and calligraphy assembled during the 1630s by Dara Shikoh (1615-1659), the eldest son of Emperor Shah Jahan (builder of the Taj Mahal), and presented to his wife Nadira Banu Begum in 1641 or 1642. One of the few Moghul albums to have survived almost intact, it is bound in tooled and gilded covers, and each artwork is mounted on its leaf within gold-painted borders. Dara Shikoh was executed in 1659 by his younger brother Aurangzib, who had emerged victorious in the wars waged between Shah Jahan’s four sons. Nadira Banu kept the album until her death, when it was taken to the royal library.
