Subordinating Fashion: The Semiotics of Courtly Costume under Jahangir

• In Event: Fashioning Status: Making Meaning through Dress and Adornment across Asia

Abstract

This paper focuses on the meanings of sartorial status markers of the early 17th-century Mughal court of Jahangir. In what may sound paradoxical to contemporary ears, metaphors of servitude described relations of intimacy with this ruler. While the metaphors of khānazād, slave, and disciple are well known in historiographic literature, little attention has been paid to the visual representation of the relationships that the metaphors describe. I will argue in this paper that the relationships between courtly elites and the emperor are indeed visible in certain clothing articles and jewelry worn by these figures in paintings produced at the court. I argue that such restricted articles of dress and adornment affirmed the inclusion of the wearer within Jahangir’s inner circle and served as a visual representation of the relationships that defined the hierarchy of the court. Using both textual and visual evidence, I will show that in the absence of badges, medals, or uniforms, items of personal adornment signaled status, preferment, and membership in the elite circle of the Emperor’s favorites.

Author

• Anna Lise Seastrand, University of Chicago