A quaff for the Emperor

Sitting in a cold museum vault in the city of London is a wide-mouthed, green jade wine cup that was crafted in 1420 in a land far away from the grey skies and the blue-green waters of the Atlantic Ocean. It was created in the vast, landlocked steppes of Central Asia, at the ancient crossroads of trade and culture, in a fabled town called Samarkand. This algae-green cup, almost oblong in shape, similar to the brush washing bowl of a Chinese calligrapher, has a handle shaped like a hornless dragon: ambiguous iconography indeed, as a dragon can be either malevolent or benevolent. The cup had belonged to Ulugh Beg (who lived from 1394 to 1449), a Sultan, an astronomer, a mathematician, a connoisseur of arts and literature, the grandson of Timur, the great conqueror who was the founder of the Timurid Dynasty which lasted from 1370 to 1507.

Ulugh was also an ancestor of Zahiruddin Mohammad Babur, who laid the foundation of another resplendent dynasty. The Mughal dynasty (1526 – 1857) became famous the world over for its highly sophisticated culture and immense patronage of the arts.

Mughal aesthetics affected all facets of the milieu they lived in. From architectural marvels to alluring jewellery pieces to elaborate costumes to immensely beautiful paintings: the craftsmanship and artistic value of each piece and each building that they created was superior to anything seen before or after. It was a unique evolution of syncretic aesthetics and master craftsmanship.

The presence of jade in the Mughal realm is unmistakable. When we look at Mughal artifacts we see a preference for jade as a highly desired material in almost every field. We see jade embedded in the walls of the palaces. We see jade in the jewellery pieces. We see dagger hilts crafted out of jade and we see water containers and drinking vessels made of it.

Mughal cups were copied by Chinese craftsmen, who could not match the highly refined skills of the Mughal ateliers

In particular, the Mughal preference for their wine cups to be carved out from jade stands out. There were several reasons for this tradition. Each reason duly seeped deep into history and culture, to count in favour of jade.

Jade is usually classified into two categories, jadeite and nephrite. It is a metamorphic rock. It evolves from pre-existing rocks which metamorphosed over thousands of years due to different conditions, at times due to high pressure and at others due to high temperatures etc. Both these forms of jade were regarded as being of a very high value. They were rare to find. Owning a jade piece was a sign of high status. Jade was considered superior to even a diamond at times.

Another reason for a preference for jade was the smoothness of the stone: a cup crafted out of jade was undeniably lovely to hold in your hand. Once jade was polished, it had a delightfully sensuous surface.

Jade has a most appropriate composition at the molecular level: the configuration was very helpful for intricate carvings on the stone. Due to its ideal molecular structure the craftsmen could chisel the stone in precisely the way they wanted, in order to create the most beautiful of animals and other shapes out of this stone.

Today in China's Xinjiang province, the ancient realm of Khotan produced the most desirable jade. This region supplied jade to the Mughals, and their ancestors, the Timurid dynasty

Jade was also owned for its medicinal value. It was believed to cure kidney disease, for one.

Jade was considered a good luck charm. And this was another vital reason to own a jade piece for a conquering dynasty: it was believed the stone brought victory and protection against the enemy in the battlefield and prosperity in general to its owner.

Though every one of the reasons so far considered was sufficient reason to own a jade artifact, there still remains one more important than any other – and this was particularly so for a wine cup:

Jade could detect poison in wine!

The quest for power and especially for the throne was an old and gruesome story in Mughal history. Brutal wars were fought inside and outside the family to gain political leverage, especially to lay claim on the throne. Fathers could eliminate their sons for the throne and sons had imprisoned and even killed their fathers for it. Siblings killed each other frequently to snatch kingdoms from one another in Turkic empires.

Palace intrigues and the often vile politics of the harem had made many a monarch all but utterly paranoid. In such an environment, a jade wine cup was not just a luxury to own but more a necessity of the times. The possibility of being poisoned was ever present and the jade cup was seen as a reliable detector of foul play.

Straddling the border of the vast Taklamakan desert in modern-day Xinjiang province of China, the ancient realm of Khotan once hosted the most desirable jade mines. Not only did this region supply the beautiful stone to the Mughals, it had been the source of jade for their ancestors in the Timurid dynasty, in the past. For centuries Khotan had regularly supplied jade to several other dynasties in China and Central Asia. And so, of course, the jade for Ulugh Beg’s wine cup was sourced from Khotan too!

These were not utensils or containers beautified by decorations. They were sculptures

Alluring aesthetics and elegant sophistication are but synonymous with the Mughal culture. To put it simply, when the Mughals ordered a product, it had to be of the highest standard, the craftsmen had to be the most skilled and the material had to be from the finest mines.

Under the Mughal rule in India, lapidary gained a sublime state of perfection and artistry. The jade pieces produced in the imperial workshops were of such exceptional value that a demand for Mughal jade pieces grew worldwide.

Another dynastic imperial tradition which treasured jade as much as the Mughals was that of the Chinese. The Chinese emperors’ quest to own as sophisticated and brilliantly crafted a piece as those produced in Mughal workshops compelled them to order their wine cups in Mughal India. Chinese craftsmanship in this field could not compete with the finesse and sophistication of the Mughal artifacts. Often, Mughal cups were copied by Chinese craftsmen, who could not match the highly refined skills of the Mughal ateliers.

An absolutely remarkable green jade wine cup was produced in a Mughal workshop in 17th century India, ending up in the possession of a Chinese ruler, the Qianlong Emperor (who reigned from 1735-1796). It now sits in a museum in Taiwan. The celestial beauty of this cup, especially created for Chinese royalty, was mesmerising. The Chinese Emperor fell in love with the cup; he composed a piece of poetry for his special wine cup, and commissioned the verses to be inscribed on the body of the cup. The Emperor also ordered a silk rope tassle to decorate the cup’s handle. This cup is so finely crafted that it is almost translucent in nature, capturing the light from outside, into its body. This cup is shaped like a bottle gourd and the warm shade of the blue green of the jade from Khotan makes it all the more alluring. The handle is designed as a stem ending in a flower on the body of the cup. The stamen of the flower has a gold thread surrounding a ruby in the center. The foot of the cup is shaped like a lotus flower.

Emissaries from Europe had been visiting the Mughal court since the reign of Akbar. They were fascinated by the level of skills that they saw in producing, amongst other things, pieces in nephrite and jadeite. One of the earliest accounts that give us a glimpse of Mughal workshops and the working of artisans under royal patronage comes from extensive accounts written by Akbar’s minister in court, Abu’l-Fazl. In Ain-i-Akbari, Abu’l-Fazal opens the window into a workshop of lapidary. He describes an artisan, prefixed ‘Zeeshan’, who would inlay the gems into gold and also inlay gold and other valuable stones into objects crafted out of gems. He also mentions how artisans excelled in engraving and craving on gemstones. By the 17th and 18th centuries, Mughal jade cups were being commissioned from the royal courts of Europe as well. Cups from Navarre, France, of Mughal origin, are examples of how the European royalty valued the Mughal craftsmanship. European jewelers and other craftsmen working with gem stones were coming to India to learn the techniques.

Akbar’s son and successor Jahangir (1605-1627) collected several old cups of wine and jugs made out of jade from Samarkand, Bukhara, Herat and Persia. However, his own workshops in India produced some remarkable cups, not only for him but also for his guests when he entertained them. Emperor Jahangir entertained lavishly. Each guest would have a nephrite cup to drink from and the large variety of beverages flowed like water, from which the guests were free to choose.

The making of these cups was laborious and time-consuming. Mughal lapidaries would cut raw nephrite or jadeite with a string that was applied with wet slurry, containing particles of diamonds, emery and quartz. The rough surface of the pieces would be polished by abrasion through grinding plates made of melted lac, mixed with powdered stones and hardened: these would polish the surface of the jade, while abrasive slurries were constantly poured over the piece to create a medium in which the plates would work. All this effort was aimed at making the surface of the jade stone as smooth and as shiny as possible. The highly developed pieces that would emerge from Mughal workshops had sculptural qualities. These were not utensils or containers beautified by decorations. They were sculptures - pieces of art imbued with an advanced sophistication and artistic value.

William Hawkins, the English merchant who visited the court of Jahangir in 1609, writes that there were about 500 jade cups in the Emperor’s collection. Some of the beautiful cups made during Emperor Jahangir’s era have survived in different museums of the world today. The most notable is Jahangir’s own cup inscribed with the name of the Emperor. The cup is wrapped in a verse written in Persian in the Nastaliq script. It mentions that the cup belongs to the Emperor Jahangir, refers to his legendary justice and states that it was crafted in the 8th year of his reign in 1613. It also wishes that the reflection of spinel-coloured wine inside the Emperor’s cup might turn the cup into a beautiful ruby. The master craftsman in the lapidary industry was Saida-i-Gillani, the head of the royal goldsmiths. The cup has his name as the crafter of the cup. He was also a master calligrapher and incised the verse on the cup himself.  It is carved out of a very similar algae-green colour of jade as that of Ulugh Beg’s, but has a handle design more intrinsic to the country of its origin. The handle is shaped as a beautiful peacock, a bird synonymous with India. Peacocks are more specifically identified with Rajasthan, the region in India where Emperor Jahangir’s mother, a Rajput princess, came from. In the Indian realm, a peacock is associated with benevolence, compassion and knowledge and that is the reason Jahangir must have selected the peacock handle.

The masterpiece of the Mughal workshops of lapidary came during the reign of Jahangir’s son, Emperor Shah Jahan (reigned 1628-1658), who continued with the love of jade wine cups of his ancestors.

Emperor Shah Jahan’s name is synonymous with magnificence, brilliance, opulence and grandeur - but above all with sophistication of the highest order. Shah Jahan’s reign excelled at the artistic level in every field. The most profound symbol of sublime aesthetics that became a hall mark of Shah Jahan’s artistic endeavors is, of course, the architectural gem that is the Taj Mahal in Agra.

In 1657 to mark the first Epoch of Shah Jahan’s reign, a Glorious Darbar was held. Emperor Shah Jahan selected a white nephrite to be especially craved into a wine cup to mark this very important milestone of his reign. Shah Jahan’s wine cup became a symbol of Mughal elegance. The cup is an exquisite piece and has come to be recognised as being amongst the most beautiful and artistic pieces created in jade in any dynasty anywhere in the world. The animal design that the emperor choose for the handle of his cup was a ram’s head. The ethereal body of the cup is shaped like a gourd which beautifully incarnates itself into a ram’s head for a handle.

Shah Jahan must have selected the ram’s head as a handle of the cup with much thought and deliberation. The ram’s head at this important occasion is meant to signify the courage and independence of the Emperor. The symbol of a ram’s head had existed in ancient Turkic culture - the most common motif on the Turkic carpet that has travelled thousands of years is a ram’s head. The evolution of thought and concepts because of cultural mingling and also due to political occupation of Persia and Central Asia by each other, had brought the ram symbol into ancient Persia. There are several vessels from the Achaemenid Empire (550-330 B.C.E.), where the handle - or even the body of the vessel itself - was shaped like a ram.

Shah Jahan’s wine cup has a translucent body; its surreal beauty is in its unabashed magnificence; and its underlying tenderness in the elegant, voluptuous flows which captivates the viewer. Its vegetal existence sublimely transcends into an animal form.

The ethereal cup rests on a most delicately carved lotus flower which symbolises purity and divine beauty, thus identifying with the culture of the land where it originated and a symbol of the syncretic Mughal milieu.

These little jade cups are now found in different museums all over the world standing as reminders of the enormity of Mughal elegance, magnificence, sophistication and splendour.

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Verses from the Qianlong Emperor praising his Mughal drinking cup

Composed in autumn of the jiawu year (approximately 1774 AD),
titled ‘In Praise of a Hindustan Jade Drinking Vessel’

Jade from the Western Kun is matchless

for its skilled craftsmanship.

Water mills grinding the jade as thin as paper,

making drinking vessels and bowls for the officials.

Differing in form from what craftsmen have recorded

in the Zhouli.

…

Half a bulging caltrop, turned-over lotus leaf,

a kind of gardenia supporting the base.

Or one could compare it to an opened oyster shell,

like a bright moon clearly reflected in the water.

The hands find no marks, the eye finds hints

of how it was conceived and executed.

The tools handled with clever contrivance and clear

determination.

I simply cannot keep myself from gazing at it again

and again.