The glorious monuments built in India by the Mughal emperors, from Babur in the early 16th century to Bahadur Shah Zafar II in the mid-19th century, have long deserved a comprehensive illustrated survey in one volume.
George Michell is the ideal author. He is both a great scholar and a fervent communicator on many aspect of India’s cultural history. He has worked as a hands-on archaeologist on major Indian sites and recently established a Deccan Foundation to protect the wonders of that little-known region.
He has been extremely well served in this magnificent book by the photographs of Amit Pasricha, who describes himself as a ‘panoramic photographer’. His photographs are staggeringly beautiful and impossible to praise too highly.
The book principally concentrates on imperial centres of power — Delhi, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri and Lahore — and the descriptions of the forts, palaces, tombs, mosques and gardens are supported by newly commissioned plans and maps drawn by Rahul Singh.
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