Pp.23+189,
161 halftone plates,
 14 figures,
5 appendices and a bibliography

It is an intensive study of the origin and development of the ‘ORNAMENT’ in Mughal Architecture. It is the ‘BEAUTIFUL’ which is the most distinctive characteristic and dominating theme of this style and it is this which primarily occupied contemplation of the Mughal builders, from Akbar to Shah Jehan. The Mughals worked out the minutest details of the structure and the surface, and adopted almost all the decorative schemes, designs and motifs which were then known in the Orient. They used ancient Indian decorative technique of stone carving and sculpture and, also freely, utilized such color schemes as glazed-tiling, painting, stucco. mosaic and inlay.

The Mughal decorative art is not an expression in isolation, it is a link in the continuous growth of the art of the Land, and the People. The book explains scores of obscure and controversial points and corrects the popular misnomers: it throws light on little known facts, e.g. the use by the Mughals of fabulous animals, Tantric symbols and Chinese cloud-forms.

It is essentially a study of ‘motifs’ and ‘designs’ of Mughal Architecture. 

Chapters :

1. Depiction of Symbolic Motifs in Mughal Architecture
2. Absorption of Typically Islamic Elements in Mughal Architecture
3. Usage of Animate Motifs in Mughal Architecture
4. Chinese Cloud forms and the Dado-Art of the Mughals