In early 1628 the Cornishman Peter Mundy stepped off a wooden plank from the bow of his ship and into the warm heat of Shah Jahan's India, or as it was then, Hindustan. Mundy was a merchant and royal servant appointed to act on behalf of the East India Trading Company, visiting the country to support administration and trade between the nations. Mundy's presence here was therefore one of the links between Charles I's England and this far-away exotic land, where spices and other goods were bought and sold. Mundy was highly observant, and recorded a lot of interesting facts about his journeys around India and we can learn a lot about what it was like to travel here in the early 1600s.
Shah Jahan had three wives, although it is usually agreed that his favourite was Mumtaz Mahal. As a young prince he made marriages for dynastic or political reasons, but it was with Mumtaz that he had most of his children. She also accompanied him at public ceremonies and travelled with him during military campaigns. On one occasion she angrily urged him to go to war after one of her maids was abducted by a group of foreigners.
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| Shah Jahan and his Peacock Throne, Public Domain via Metropolitan Museum |
The couple lived in an opulent court and were carried in chairs mounted on top of jewelled elephants. They threw coins to crowds and drank from cups made of jade. They also glittered in diamonds and wore intricate fabrics that conveyed their power and wealth. Money for the couple seemed to be in abundant supply, and Shah Jahan's throne, where he received ambassadors and the public, was especially magnificently decorated.
In March 1632, Mundy made a note in his diary, recording Shah Jahan's 'Peacock Throne':
'At this time in Agra, the king sitteth out upon his throne... of which every king hath his own, there being one now making for this, that by computation cannot be worth less than 4 Courourees of rupees. Every Courouree is 100 Lack and every Lack is 100,000 which, in our money is four millions and three hundred thousand pounds sterling. All of pure gold, curiously engraven, enamelled and set with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, etc. Precious stones, taken out of the treasury. I saw the king sitteth out nine days under mighty high, rich and stately pavilions of Cloth of Gold, etc. with his Amrawes or Lords about him, al making the greatest shows of magnificence and mirth they can, in feasting, presenting, recreating, with several shows and pastimes and dancing wenches, fighting of elephants etc.'
In fact, the Peacock Throne was said to have been worth around one and a quarter million sterling in 1632. The sight of Shah Jahan seated among this magnificence would have conveyed an important message of power, wealth and resources. From other sources we know that he sat on a large seat with cushions, and that there was a jewelled canopy above his head which was supported by emerald-studded pillars. Three steps took him to his seat, which acted as a stage where peacock sculptures looked down at him from the top of each column, decorated with rubies, garnets, diamonds, emeralds and pearls. The history of Shah Jahan's reign, the Badsah-nama by Abdul Hamid Lori, stated that it took craftspeople seven years to complete the throne. No wonder it became an object of legend, and so eagerly eyed by Mundy.
Find out more about Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal in my book Power Couples of the Renaissance. It features relationship dynamics that went against accepted norms of the period and power-hungry couples who ruled, fought and spread the patronage of art, science and culture across the globe during one of the most tumultuous periods of history. Find it on the Pen and Sword Books website.
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