Peacock Throne

The Peacock Throne (Hindustani: Mayūrāsana, Sanskrit: मयूरासन, Urdu: تخت طاؤس, Persian: تخت طاووس, Takht-i Tāvūs) was the imperial throne of Hindustan. The throne is named after the dancing peacocks at its rear and was the seat of the Mughal emperors of India from 1635 to 1739. It was commissioned in the early 17th century by Emperor Shah Jahan and was located in the Diwan-i-Khas (Hall of Private Audiences, or Ministers' Room) in the Red Fort of Delhi. The original throne was taken as a war trophy by Nader Shah, Shah of Iran in 1739 after his invasion of India. Its replacement disappeared during or soon after the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
Shah Jahan ruled in what is now considered the Golden Age of the vast Mughal Empire, which covered almost all of the Indian subcontinent. He ruled from the newly constructed capital of Shahjahanabad. The emperor was the focus around which everything else revolved, giving audiences and receiving petitioners. The ruler's court was to be a mirror image of paradise on earth, in the very center of the empire, and such a ruler would be worthy of a Throne of Solomon (تختِ سليمان, Takht-e-Sulaiman) to underscore his position as a just king. Like Solomon's throne, the Peacock Throne was to be covered in gold and jewels, with steps leading up to it, with the ruler floating above the ground and closer to heaven. Said Gilani and his workers from the imperial goldsmiths' department were commissioned to construct this new throne. It took seven years to complete. Large amounts of solid gold, precious stones, and pearls were used, creating a masterful piece of Mughal artistry that was unsurpassed before or after its creation. It was an opulent indulgence that could only be seen by a few courtiers, aristocrats, and visiting dignitaries. The throne was, even by Golden Age Mughal standards, supremely extravagant, costing twice as much as the construction of the Taj Mahal.
The appearance of this new throne was in stark contrast to the older throne of Jahangir, a large rectangular slab of engraved black basalt constructed in the early 1600s, used by the father of Shah Jahan.
The new throne was not initially given the name by which it became known. It was known as the "Jeweled Throne" or "Ornamented Throne" (Takht-Murassa). It received its name from later historians because of the peacock statues featured on it.
The Peacock Throne was inaugurated in a triumphant ceremony on 22 March 1635, the formal seventh anniversary of Shah Jahan's accession. The date was chosen by astrologers and was doubly auspicious, since it coincided exactly with Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan, and Nowruz, the Persian New Year. The emperor and the court were returning from Kashmir, and it was determined that the third day of Nowruz would be the most auspicious day for him to enter the capital and take his seat on the throne.
Muhammad Qudsi, the emperor's favourite poet, was chosen to compose twenty verses inscribed in emerald and green enamel on the throne. He praised the matchless skill of the artisans, the "heaven-depleting grandeur" of its gold and jewels, and included the date in the letters of the phrase "the throne of the just king".
Poet Abu-Talib Kalim was given six pieces of gold for each verse in his poem of sixty-three couplets.
The emperor summoned master goldsmith Said Gilani and showered him with honours, including his weight in gold coins and the title "Peerless Master" (Bibadal Khan). Gilani produced a poem of 134 couplets, filled with chronograms, the first twelve couplets giving the date of the emperor's birth, the following thirty-two the date of his first coronation, then ninety couplets giving the date of the throne's inauguration.
After Shah Jahan's death, his son Aurangzeb, who had the regnal name of Alamgir, ascended the Peacock Throne. Aurangzeb was the last of the strong Mughal emperors. After he died in 1707, his son Bahadur Shah I reigned from 1707 to 1712. Bahadur Shah I could keep the empire stable by maintaining a relaxed religious policy; however, after his death, the empire declined. A period of political instability, military defeats, and court intrigues led to a succession of weak emperors: Jahandar Shah ruled for one year from 1712 to 1713, Farrukhsiyar from 1713 to 1719, Rafi ud-Darajat and Shah Jahan II only for a couple of months in 1719. By the time Muhammad Shah came to power, Mughal power was seriously declining, and the empire was vulnerable. Nevertheless, under the generous patronage of Muhammad Shah, the court at Delhi became again a beacon of the arts and culture. Administrative reforms could not, however, stop the later Mughal-Maratha Wars, which significantly sapped the imperial forces. It was only a question of time until forces from neighbouring Persia saw their chance to invade.
Nader Shah's invasion of the Mughal Empire culminated in the Battle of Karnal, on 13 February 1739, and the defeat of Muhammad Shah. Nadir Shah entered Delhi and sacked the city, in the course of which tens of thousands of inhabitants were massacred. Persian troops left Delhi at the beginning of May 1739, taking with them the throne as a war trophy. Their treasure haul amounted to a considerable reduction in Mughal wealth and an irreplaceable loss of cultural artefacts. Among the known precious stones that Nadir Shah looted were the Akbar Shah, Great Mughal, Great Table, Koh-i-Noor, and Shah diamonds, as well as the Samarian spinel and the Timur ruby. These stones were either part of the Peacock Throne or were in possession of the Mughal emperors. The Akbar Shah Diamond was said to form one of the eyes of a peacock, as did the Koh-i-Noor. The Shah diamond was described by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier as being on the side of the throne. Many of these stones ended up becoming part of the Persian crown jewels and, later, the British crown jewels as a result of Great Britain's colonial expansion into the region. When Nadir Shah was assassinated by his officers on 19 June 1747, the throne disappeared, most probably being dismantled or destroyed for its valuables, in the ensuing chaos. One of the unsubstantiated rumours claimed the throne was given to the Ottoman Sultan, although this could have been a minor throne produced in Persia and given as a gift. The Persian emperor Fath-Ali Shah commissioned the Sun Throne to be constructed in the early 19th century. The Sun Throne has a platform in the shape of that of the Peacock Throne. Some rumours claim that parts of the original Peacock Throne were used in its construction, although there is no evidence. Over time, the Sun Throne was erroneously called the Peacock Throne, a term the West later appropriated as a metonym for the Persian monarchy. No structural parts proven to be of the original Peacock Throne survived. Only some of the diamonds and precious stones attributed to it have survived and been re-worked.
A Sikh legend has it that a rectangular stone slab measuring 6 feet (1.8 m) by 4 feet (1.2 m) by 9 inches (230 mm) was uprooted, enchained, and brought by Ramgarhia Misl chief Jassa Singh Ramgarhia to Ramgarhia Bunga, in Amritsar, after the capture of the Red Fort by the combined Dal Khalsa forces of Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, Jassa Singh Ramgarhia and Baghel Singh in 1783, as war booty. However, that this stone pedestal does indeed come from the Peacock Throne has not been independently corroborated by scientists and historians.
A replacement throne resembling the original was probably constructed for the Mughal emperor after the Persian invasion. The throne was located on the eastern side of the Divan-i-Khas, towards the windows. This throne, however, was also lost, possibly during or after the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and the subsequent looting and partial destruction of the Red Fort by the British. The marble pedestal on which it rested has survived and can still be seen today.
In 1908, the New York Times reported that Caspar Purdon Clarke, Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, obtained what was purported to be a marble leg from the pedestal of the throne. Although mentioned in the 1908 annual report, the status of this pedestal leg remains unknown. There is another marble leg in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Where precisely these two pedestal legs originate, and if they are connected to the Peacock Throne, remains unclear.
Inspired by the legend of the throne, King Ludwig II of Bavaria installed a romanticised version of it in his Moorish Kiosk in Linderhof Palace, constructed in the 1860s.
The contemporary descriptions that are known today of Shah Jahan's throne are from the Mughal historians Abdul Hamid Lahori and Inayat Khan, and the French travellers François Bernier and Jean-Baptiste Tavernier. No known painting of the throne that would match their descriptions exists.
Abdul Hamid Lahori (d. 1654) describes, in his Padshahnama, the construction of the throne:
The following is the account given of the throne in the Shahjahannama of Inayat Khan:
The French physician and traveller François Bernier described, in his Travels in the Mogul Empire A.D. 1656–1668, the throne in the Diwan-i-Khas:
The French jeweler Jean-Baptiste Tavernier made his sixth voyage to India between 1663 and 1668. It was his great privilege to be invited by emperor Aurangzeb himself to visit the court at Delhi, where he remained as Aurangzeb's guest for two months, from 12 September 1665 to 11 November 1665.
Tavernier was invited so the emperor could inspect the jewels he had brought from the West, intending to purchase them. During this visit, Tavernier sold several jewels to the emperor and the emperor's uncle, Jafar Khan, and established a close relationship with the emperor, leading to a more extended stay. Tavernier was invited to stay until the conclusion of the emperor's annual birthday celebrations. During that time, he had the opportunity to visit the Red Fort and inspect the Peacock Throne. He was also allowed to inspect the valuable jewels and stones belonging to the emperor but could not see those still kept by Aurangzeb's father, Shah Jahan, who was imprisoned at Agra Fort. In January 1666, only a few months after Tavernier's stay, Shah Jahan died, and Aurangzeb claimed the remaining stones.
Tavernier gives a detailed description of the Peacock Throne in his book Les Six Voyages de J. B. Tavernier, published in 1676 in two volumes. The account of the throne appears in Chapter VIII of Volume II, in which he describes the preparations for the emperor's annual birthday festival and the court's magnificence. Tavernier is considered among the least reliable from a conventionally historical perspective.
Tavernier, however, describes seeing the throne in what is probably the Diwan-i-Am. One theory is that the throne was sometimes moved between the two halls, depending on the occasion. Tavernier also describes five other thrones in the Diwan-i-Khas.
The descriptions of Lahori, from before 1648, and Tavernier's, published in 1676, are generally in broad agreement on the essential features of the thrones, such as its rectangular shape, standing on four legs at its corners, the 12 columns on which the canopy rests, and the type of gemstones embedded on the throne, such as balas rubies, emeralds, pearls, diamonds, and other coloured stones. There are, however, some significant differences between the two descriptions:
Apart from the significant differences between the two accounts given above, there are several details provided in Lahori's account that are not mentioned in Tavernier's, and vice versa.
Tavernier was allowed to inspect the throne and its jewels closely and wrote the most well-known detailed description.
After Nadir Shah took the original, another throne was made for the Mughal emperor. Along with the Peacock Throne, Nadir had also taken the fabulous Koh-i Noor and Darya-i Noor diamonds to Persia, where some became part of the Persian crown jewels, and others were sold to the Ottomans. The plunder taken by Nadir was so great that he stopped taxation for three years. The bottom half of the Peacock Throne might have been converted into the Sun Throne, also a part of the Persian crown jewels. Various 19th-century Indian paintings of this later throne exist. It was located in the Diwan-i-Khas and might have been smaller than the original. However, the appearance would have been similar, based on either the original plans or from memory and eyewitness accounts. The replacement throne was made out of gold, or was gilded, and was studded with precious and semi-precious stones. Just like the original, it featured 12 columns. The columns carried a Bengali do-chala roof, which was graced with two peacock statues on the two ends, carrying pearl necklaces in their beaks and two peacocks at the top, also carrying pearl necklaces in their beaks. The two lower peacocks were in the center underneath a flower bouquet made of jewels or under a royal umbrella. A canopy of precious and colorful textiles and gold and silver threads protected this throne. The canopy was carried by four slender columns or beams made out of metal. Underneath the throne, colorful and precious carpets were laid out.