A Mughal Songbook: Art, Music and Empire

A Mughal Songbook presents the treasure of the Plowden songbook, a rare manuscript of 77 songs in Persian, Urdu, Classical Hindi and Punjabi, brought to life through detailed illustrations of musicians, dancers, singers and courtesans. The exhibition explores how art and music crossed boundaries of language and empire - from the Mughal Empire (1526–1857) to the ever-expanding network of the East India Company - immersing visitors in a playful panorama of life across Hindustan (Bengal, Delhi, Lucknow and other centres of the late Mughal Empire, c. 1750–1850) through sound, paintings, manuscripts and performance traditions.