It is during the era of Emperor Jahangir that Mughal art, prose, and illumination reached their zenith. This 17th-century monarch was enamored especially by the flora and fauna of his kingdom and has captured its variety in a series of riveting manuscripts contained (now) in the dispersed leaves of the tuzk-e-Jahangiri and Jahangirnama.

I had the pleasure of visiting his serene mausoleum in Lahore today—an apt tribute to this cultured monarch whose rule saw the pinnacle of the Mughal empire. Designed by both his son Emperor Shah Jahan and his queen Empress Noor Jahan, this single-story structure stands alone in its grandeur. Constructed in the middle of the Char Bagh—the typical quadrangle of the Mughal garden, it is meant to suggest glimpses of heaven which are supposedly organized in four gardens as well.