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A jali is more than a patterned opening in a wall. Its carved geometry or ornament is an artwork in its own right, while its position in a building shapes views, privacy and the movement of light. Art historian and curator Navina Najat Haidar makes that relationship central: to understand a jali, look at both the screen and the wider artistic language of the architecture around it.
What is a jali?
A jali is a perforated stone or latticed screen, often decorated with geometric, floral, vegetal or calligraphic designs. It can admit filtered light and support privacy or protection, while its pattern and placement contribute to the atmosphere and appearance of a building. The precise effect depends on the screen and its setting; not every jali serves the same purpose or carries the same meaning.
Haidar’s phrase, quoted in a Scroll interview published on December 23, 2023, points to two ways of seeing the work: as an individual object with its own material and pattern, and as part of a larger architectural composition. A screen frames what can be seen through it, affects the light falling beyond it and relates to the surfaces and spaces around it.
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How does a jali change light and space?
A pierced screen makes pattern part of the room
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s late-16th-century Pierced Window Screen (Jali) provides a specific example. The museum identifies it as red sandstone, with interlocking stars and hexagons. Weathering on one side suggests that it once stood in an exterior wall.
In the museum’s accompanying audio, Haidar describes how the pierced surface could cast related designs onto the floor. The pattern therefore operates at more than one scale: it is carved into the screen and, when light passes through it, can appear again in the space beyond. Its visual effect depends on the opening, the incoming light and the room or surface receiving that light.
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Craft is part of the visual effect
Haidar notes in the audio that such screens are made from single pieces of stone. Carving a complex design into one piece demands precision: a mistake can ruin the work. The finished surface may seem airy, but producing it requires the maker to preserve the strength and continuity of the stone while opening the pattern.
What can jali patterns mean?
Geometric, floral, vegetal and calligraphic motifs offer different visual vocabularies, but a motif alone does not establish a single religious or symbolic meaning. Interpretation needs to be tied to a particular screen, building and historical setting. Haidar’s interview and the Asian Art Museum’s event description discuss interpretation in relation to specific Mughal examples; they do not justify treating every jali as an interchangeable symbol.
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A careful reading starts with what can be observed: the material, pattern, scale, placement and relationship to light and view. A further symbolic interpretation should be attributed to the source making it and connected to the monument or object in question.
How did jalis develop across architectural traditions?
Jali work is not confined to one period or a single origin story. Haidar’s illustrated book, Jali: Lattice of Divine Light in Mughal Architecture, brings together more than two hundred screens selected from a broad span of traditions. The Smithsonian Libraries and Archives describes coverage ranging from temple traditions and Sultanate-era work to Mughal, Rajput, Deccan and modern interpretations, with regional material that includes Gujarat, northern and central India, Rajasthan and the Deccan. The figure refers to examples in the book, not a count of all surviving jalis.
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Haidar cautions against treating Mughal jalis as an isolated invention. In her interview, she describes stone-carving techniques and auspicious motifs at Hindu and Jain temple sites as part of the longer architectural story, with developments that played a role in later Mughal architecture. This is a history of exchange and adaptation, rather than a simple account in which one tradition began the form and another merely copied it.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Who supported jali architecture?
Haidar’s discussion also broadens the story of Mughal building beyond a single celebrated ruler. While Shah Jahan is commonly credited as a great builder, she points to contributions by multiple rulers and women patrons. She notes that Nur Jahan commissioned at least four important buildings, including the tomb of her parents in Agra. These are points made in Haidar’s interview, not a complete inventory of Mughal patronage.
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She also situates the art within a setting in which artists and patrons drew on Indian, European and Persianate idioms. That context helps explain why a screen’s design should be read alongside the building, its makers and its patrons rather than as an isolated decorative pattern.
How to look closely at a jali
When comparing screens, begin with the evidence specific to each one rather than assuming all examples work or mean the same thing.
- Date and region: Place the screen within its documented period and architectural tradition.
- Material and making: Notice the stone or other material, and whether the construction is carved from a single piece.
- Pattern: Describe the geometry or ornament before assigning symbolic meaning.
- Scale and placement: Ask whether it is a window, an exterior screen or another architectural element, and what it frames.
- Light and privacy: Consider how its openings affect illumination, views and separation in that particular setting.
- Interpretation and patronage: Attribute claims about symbolism or commissioning to the source that supports them.
This approach reflects Haidar’s stated curatorial preference for beginning with the artwork and allowing ideas to grow from it, rather than fitting the work into a predetermined narrative. For painters and other artists, a jali also offers a way to observe how repeated forms, openings and cast shadows can organize a composition—but the screen remains rooted in the architecture and craft that produced it.
Further reading
For a wider selection of examples, see Jali: Lattice of Divine Light in Mughal Architecture, edited by Navina Najat Haidar with photography by Abhinav Goswami. Smithsonian Libraries and Archives catalogs the 2023 illustrated book at 268 pages; the publisher listing gives ISBN 9789385360749.
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