Experience The Cultural Aesthetics Of Agra Through Indian Rugs

By Matthew Cooper


From 1566 until 1569, Agra was treated as the capital city of Mughal, and this city was dubbed as the most beautiful and historical place in which Taj Mahal stands. The craft of weaving carpets was an essential tradition upheld by the locals to produce products for the nobles. The construction of Mughal rugs started a century earlier Shah Jehan went down from the hills to subdue India as his territory.

Akbar was an enthusiast of Persian carpets that he even gathered craftsmen from Persia to weave rugs for the royal courts and palaces. The locals of India soon learned about the techniques and designs from the foreign workers that allowed them to associate their locality style into their Indian rugs Los Angeles and produce a product of their own characteristics. As Jehan ruled over the place, constructing rugs began to shift towards aesthetics.

As their popularity rises because of their beauty, their demand spread to different places. Each carpet were designed with a high quantity of knots they got from the Persian items, but they were able to integrate distinctive Indian patterns into it. They became popular because of their intricate representation of realistic design and features, and aside from foreign adaptations, the product also displays patterns showing landscapes, architecture, and scenes from Mughal courts.

The most defining characteristic of this rug is the contrasting shades and the usage of fine wool that people would mistake for a silk. They are made with the most delicate and tightest knotting design among all ancient oriental carpets. For example, a prayer rug constructed with the flowering plant pattern on its middle section has an approximate of two thousand knots per square inch.

Mainly all innovated Mughal mats are created from cotton as an alternative to wool. The outputs were manufactured within the territories of Lahore, Agra, and Fatehpur Sikiri in this period, but in the modern times, Kashmir, a Northwestern territory in India now produced the quilts. The mat and quilt received distinguishing features due to the existence of a millefleur design.

Huge production originated in the city of Agra with knotting and carpet patterns that resembles a Persian rug. Some antique rugs from this era has now become a museum display in America and Europe. These carpets were mainly made by experienced weavers in the latest part of nineteenth century with an application of the unparalleled quality of materials.

The tapestries and paintings used as the main materials in the construction of a carpet was attained by the Mughal courts as a result of their diplomatic bond with British and Dutch traders. The products designed with millefleurs bore similarity to draperies found in Medieval Europe. A feature applied in other cities are the secondary guard loops which serves as the division for the central section and border of a carpet.

The way Indians revered mythical and natural plant and animal guardian is present in every item. The designs that came from Agra have stretched to the Western and Eastern carpet and textile patterns, and til this time, the practice is retained as an emblem of luxury and wealth. The Metropolitan Museum of Art located in New York took hold of some excellent Mughal heirlooms that include the product designed with vines and blossoms, the animal carpet and the rug of tress, birds, and ibexes.

The color palette were highly flavored with rich tones of green and red that contrasts with white or ivory. But right after the British colonization in India, the industry of weaving declined firmly. In this age, Agra carpets were deemed the most enticing decorative items of all times.




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