Flag of the Mughal Empire

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Mughal Empire
Names ʿAlam علم,
Shir-u-khurshid شیر و خورشید "Lion and sun"
Use State flag
Adopted 16th century
Design A dark tone of green (Mughal green) field with a rising sun, partially eclipsed by a lion

The Mughal Empire had a number of imperial flags and standards. The principal imperial standard of the Mughals was known as the alam. It was primarily moss green.[1] It displayed a lion and sun facing the hoist of the flag.[2] The Mughals traced their use of the alam back to Timur.[3]

The imperial standard was displayed to the right of the throne and also at the entrance of the Emperor's encampment and in front of the emperor during military marches.[3]

According to the Ain-i-Akbari, during Akbar's reign, whenever the emperor rode out, not less than five alams were carried along with the qur (a collection of flags and other insignia) wrapped up in scarlet cloth bags. They were unfurled on the days of festivity, and in battle.[4] Edward Terry, chaplain to Sir Thomas Roe, who came during the reign of Jahangir, described in his Voyage to East-India (1655) that the royal standard, made of silk, with a crouching lion shadowing part of the body of the sun inscribed on it, was carried on an elephant whenever the emperor travelled.[5][6]

A painting by Payag in a manuscript of the Padshahnama, a chronicle on Shah Jahan's reign, preserved in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle depicted the Mughal standards as the scarlet pennons with green borders with a passant lion and rising sun behind it.[7] Another painting in the same manuscript depicted the Mughal standards having green fields with a couchant lion and rising sun behind it.[8][9]

Historical depictions

  • Illustrations from the 1636 Padshahnama of Shah Jahan showing Moghul Soldier & Civilian Costume. Notice the flag in the bottom of the pictures with the standing lion and the sun in a red interior color, this is a scene from the Siege of Kandahar of 1631 during Shah-Jahan's time. Notice the flag in the upper part of the picture with green interior and yellow linings.

  • A Mughal miniature from the Padshahnama depicting the surrender of the Safavid Persian garrison of Kandahar in 1638 to the Mughal army of Shah Jahan commanded by Kilij Khan. Notice the white flag with the rising Sun. Perhaps a flag signalling peace. As Safavid forces give the city without bloodshed.

  • Lion and sun- Mogul Empure-India.jpg

    An engraving from Edward Terry's A Voyage to East-India (1655) titled Imperial Standard of the Great Mogul.

  • The Battle of Samugarh.jpg

    A mid-17th century painting of the Battle of Samugarh between the three sons of Shah Jahan

  • Aurangzeb leads his final expedition (1705), leading an army of 500,000 troops (note flags in the background).

  • Aurangzeb commanding his army (note triangular green flags)

  • Alivardi Khan's forces carry the green flag of the Mughal Empire.

  • An elephant with a mahout and a standard-bearer carrying a green standard with a gold sun. One of a set

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/addorimss/a/zoomify55414.html
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Blochmann, H. (tr.) (1927, reprint 1993). The Ain-I Akbari by Abu'l-Fazl Allami, Vol. I, Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, p.52
  5. ↑ Foster, William (ed.) (1921) Early Travels in India, 1583-1619, London: Oxford University Press, p. 306
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Further reading

  • Koch, Ebba (2001). Mughal Art and Imperial Ideology: Collected Essays, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

External links

Media related to Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. at Wikimedia Commons

  • An engraving of the Mughal imperial standard from Foster, William (ed.) The embassy of Sir Thomas Roe to the court of the Great Mogul, 1615–1619, as narrated in his journal and correspondence London: Haklyut Society, 1899 in Internet Archive website
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