Mughal clothing

• 1. Introduction

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  Mughal clothing dressed a subcontinent-spanning empire that lasted through the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, home to many cultures, faiths, and ethnicities. In the women's quarters known as the zenana, a single outfit was sometimes worn only once before being given away entirely. Contemporary accounts describe garments so delicate that the muslin used was, in their words, 'so fine as to be almost transparent.' Some of these dresses weighed less than an ounce apiece, even after gold lace was stitched into them. That combination of extravagance and disposability sat at the center of Mughal style for men and women alike. What made a coat, a turban, or a slipper worth wearing for a single day and then discarding? Who decided what counted as fashionable at court, and how did the answer change from one emperor's reign to the next? And what happened to the artisans whose hands actually produced all of this luxury?

• 2. Men's Garments

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  A man at the Mughal court began his outfit with the jama, a long overlapping coat tied at the waist with a cummerbund. Underneath went the paijama, loose trousers whose name later entered English as pajama. A pagri, or turban, wrapped around the head completed the look.

  During Akbar's reign, the emperor's own daily costume was a knee-length jama. He sometimes wore its peshwaz or angrakha variants, fastened on the right side or at the center. In Persian, the word jama simply means garment, robe, gown, or coat. The style traced back to the Yaktahi Jama of Persia and Central Asia, worn short or long over a pai-jama. Together they formed an outfit known as the Bast Agag.

  Mughal Jama specifically meant a side-fastening frock coat with a tight bodice, a nipped waist, and a flared skirt reaching the knees. Miniature paintings show Akbar wearing his jama girded with a waistband, paired with a small turban that had no cap, and a churidar paijama. Akbar later restyled the garment into a more formal gown. He removed its slits, rounded the hemline, and increased the fullness of the skirt.

  Hindus and Muslims serving in the Mughal court wore the identical jama with only a small variation in style. Hindus fastened it on the left side of the body, while Muslims tied it on the right.

  Akbar did not stop at garments inherited from Babur and Humayun. He also brought the takauchiya into fashion, an Indian costume stitched from silk, gold, or wool that suited both summer and winter. He embroidered his own takauchiya with gold and adopted fine shawls. This showcased the doshala, a double-faced shawl made of two fabrics joined at the underside, with both sides finished. That reinvention of the coat and shawl was only part of the picture. Above the neckline, an entirely different set of rules governed what could be worn on the head.

• 3. Headwear and Turban Jewels

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  Mughal headwear took several forms: the four-paneled chau-goshia cap, the dome-shaped qubbedar, the kashiti, the embroidered dupalli and nukka dar, and the velvet mandil. Emperors wore turban ornaments made of gold set with rubies, diamonds, emeralds, and sapphires.

  Under Akbar, the standard turban was wrapped directly onto the head rather than over a Karakul hat. It was pulled into a tight bundle at the front, then rose into a bulge toward the back. A band or sash, usually cut from a different fabric than the turban itself, held the whole arrangement in place. Women of the court wore a separate style of headwear, silk Karakul or boqta hats trimmed with jewels, feathered pins, and veils.

  As the empire aged, this class of ornament came to be called the sarpech, from sar, meaning head, and pech, meaning fastener. Only the emperor, his closest relations, and a select few among his entourage, including certain animals, were allowed to wear the royal turban ornament.

  Akbar favored the Iranian style of his time, keeping a single feather plume upright at the very front of the turban. Jahangir softened that look, weighing the plume down with a large pearl so it drooped gently from its base. By Shah Jahan's reign, a fully jeweled ornament called the kalgi had appeared. Its plume and stem were built from gems set in gold, backed by enameled color. That heavier, more ornate style had become common by the time of Aurangzeb.

  Turbans were also fixed in place with a gem-set kalangi or aigrette, a device similar in style to the aigrette worn by the Ottoman Sultan. Men of the court chose among named ornaments such as the Jigha, Sarpatti, Sarpech, Kalgi, Mukut, Turra, and Kalangi. Women had their own set, including the Binduli, Kotbiladar, Sekra, Siphul, Tikka, and Jhumar, alongside a range of ornaments woven into the hair braid itself. That same care given to the head carried all the way down to the feet, where an entirely different set of specialists worked.

• 4. Footwear

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  Footwear at the Mughal court varied by religion as much as by rank. Followers of Islam wore shoes and boots habitually, protecting their feet from the heat and hazards of the Indian landscape.

  The Mojari became the era's most distinctive slipper, woven with gold and silver zari thread and encrusted with jewels to display its wearer's wealth. Its curled, upturned front set it apart from other footwear of the period. Jahangir, the Mughal emperor, was born in 1569 and died in 1627; he is credited with popularizing the Mojari among the nobility.

  Visitors to Akbar's court most often wore the Jhuti, a Persian-style shoe with turned-up toes. Original juttis were made purely of leather, finished with fine embroidery and embellishment. Soles stayed leather throughout, while uppers were leather or fabric, frequently stitched with gold and silver thread, especially for Muslim wearers.

  A flat-soled version called the Desi Jutti made no distinction between the right and left foot, keeping only the curled, upturned toe. Its styles and designs have continued to evolve over the centuries since.

  Court dress also included the Kafsh, worn by nobles and kings, and the Charhvan, with its curling tongue fixed to the toe. Two more styles rounded out the options: the gold-decorated Salim Shahi and the featherlight, kid-leather Khurd Nau. Lucknow, meanwhile, became known for its shoes and for threading embroidery in gold and silver aughi during the period.

  All of this, from turban to toe, applied mostly to what men wore. Women followed an entirely separate set of customs, starting with the rituals performed before any garment went on.

• 5. Women's Fashion

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  Women at court followed an elaborate beauty routine built around 16 celebrated rituals. Eyebrows were arched into symmetry, kajal lined the eyelids, and teeth were whitened with a preparation called missi. A nath, or nose ring, studded with diamonds was typically a gift from a husband to his bride.

  Betel leaf served multiple purposes: it reddened the lips, sweetened the breath, and worked as a kind of deodorant. Princesses also stained their hands and feet red with mehendi, an expensive habit that doubled as a remedy for skin irritation.

  Because purdah kept court women relatively isolated, early Mughal fashion followed the traditional dress of Khurasan and Persia. Over time, growing social and diplomatic ties with the rest of India, Rajputana especially, brought new styles of dress into the mix.

  Noble women under Babur and Humayun began their outfits with wide, loose pants that were painted or striped. Their upper garments were loose, fastened at the neck or cut with a V-shaped neckline. Some wore a Yalek, a close-fitting, nearly floor-length vest buttoned down the front, with either short or long sleeves.

  When Rajput princesses joined the court under Akbar, Hindu dress began shaping fashion regardless of a wife's own religion. Outfits grew more layered, with a tight bodice stopping short of the navel. Over that went the peshwaz, a garment once fashionable for men. On women it was cut to the knee or lower, with a fastened waist, a V neckline, and a gold-decorated front opening.

  Underneath, women wore either tight pants called tunban or izar, or a wrapped garment called la hengu. The la hengu was styled like a lungi, sewn with a band at the top. Muslim women tended to favor the pants, Hindu women the skirt style, and both decorated their drawstrings at length with pearls and jewels.

  In cold weather, women added long gowns called qaba or a Kashmiri shawl. They also wore jamawars, wool suits woven through with flowers in wool or silk. Their heads were covered with gold cloth or turbans trimmed in feathers. Their shoes carried the same sharply curling toes and worn-down heels seen elsewhere at court.

  Layered onto all of this fabric sat an entire second wardrobe made of metal and stone.

• 6. Jewelry and Adornment

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  Akbar's reign gave Mughal jewelry-making new energy, part of a craft otherwise documented mainly through chronicles and court paintings. Designers expanded their range of styles, and the Mughals left their mark on nearly every branch of the craft.

  Adornment reached into every corner of court life, worn not only by kings and their families but even by the king's horse. Women of the court could own as many as 8 complete sets of jewelry. Armlets two inches wide sat above the elbow. Bracelets or strands of pearls were stacked at the wrist, high enough to make a pulse hard to find.

  Rings were common too, including a mirror ring worn on the right thumb by nearly everyone living in the Zenana. Strings of pearls could number as many as 15 at once, and similar bands or pearl strings wrapped around the ankles. Some women also wore an ornament hanging at the middle of the head, shaped like a star, sun, moon, or flower.

  Ear ornaments such as the Mor-Bhanwar, Bali, Jhumkas, Kanphool, and Pipal patra were worn by men and women alike, appearing often in Mughal paintings. Around the neck, men favored pieces like the Latkan, the amala necklace, and the Mala, while women wore the Guluband, Hans, Har, and Hasuli.

  Nose ornaments belonged to women alone, among them the phul, besar, laung, balu, nath, and Phuli.

  None of this metalwork mattered without the cloth underneath it, cloth that came from a supply chain stretching well beyond the empire's own borders.

• 7. Textiles and Dyes

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  Mughal tailors favored a defined set of prized fabrics: muslin, silk, velvet, and brocade, worked into patterns of dots, checks, and waves. Color came from dyes including cochineal, sulfate of iron, sulfate of copper, and sulfate of antimony.

  Other fabrics included tus, a cloth woven from wild goat hair, along with pashmina and other kinds of light, warm wool. Silks were frequently embroidered with gold and silver thread and finished with lace trim. Cloth in Mughal India carried value beyond its material cost. It was prized for its softness and warmth, its symbolic associations, and its ties to social and political standing.

  Garments were regularly scented with rose water, and some shawls were reportedly woven so thin that they could be pulled through a finger ring. Certain muslins even carried poetic names, among them ab-i-rawan, meaning running water, and daft hawa, meaning woven air.

  Silk itself was highly prized, yet it was rarely produced within Mughal territory. Wild silkworms in Assam yielded a thicker, off-colored silk, but most silk came through imports from Iran, China, and Central Asia. Akbar's conquests of Bengal and Kashmir opened up access to silk production in those regions.

  Cotton muslin, known as malmal, was valued across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Spinners in Bengal worked the cotton thread in the early morning or on humid afternoons, when the fibers stayed most pliable. Weaving just twenty yards of the finished cloth could take as long as six months. That made malmal as costly as silk, and sometimes more so. A related cloth called calico looked similar but was slightly thicker and heavier. Thin cottons like these were reserved for hot weather, and garments such as jamas and dupattas were often cut from them.

  Cotton cloth took color from plants such as Citrifolia root, which produced red, and indigo, which produced blue. Dyers submerged the cloth in an indigo solution, then hung it to drain in open air and rinsed it. A final wash in diluted sulfuric acid removed residual calcium carbonate. Cloth could also be painted or stamped, often in floral patterns. Chintz, a type of calico, was either painted freehand with a brush and pencil or printed using a stamping block.

  Behind every one of these dyed, woven, and embroidered fabrics stood the hands that actually made them.

• 8. Artisans Behind the Craft

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  Artisans across Mughal India held an economic standing similar to that of peasants. Their skill produced the workmanship behind everything from a jeweled turban to a length of muslin. Royal patronage of the arts grew throughout the period. Even so, the average artisan was poorly paid for that work.

  Today, individual artisans still hand-make the Desi Jutti, producing the same curled-toe leather slippers in an extensive range of colors and designs.