Inside the Story · No. 01 · Monday 28 September 2026 · Architecture · South Asia

The Jali That Cooled a Mughal City

Where does a print begin? This one began as a window, carved in red sandstone five hundred years ago.

The inside story of a design inspired by Pierced window screen (jali).

Pierced window screen (jali), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The source

Pierced window screen (jali)Red sandstone, pierced and carved · India, Second half of the 16th century, the reign of Akbar · 185.4 x 130.3 x 8.3 cmThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York · Pierced Window Screen (Jali), India, second half 16th century. The Met, Rogers Fund, 1993, accession 1993.67.2. Public domain (CC0). · object 453344 · CC0View at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York ↗

A jali is a window with the glass replaced by geometry. Carvers cut this one from a single slab, front and back, until the stone became lace. The Met notes it was one of a pair, set in an outside wall: one face is weathered.

It did three jobs at once. It let the breeze through. It kept the sun out and the street's eyes away from the people inside. And it drew: the light that passed through it laid the pattern on the floor, and the pattern moved with the hour.

What we saw

Four parts, traced from the photograph

1The arch and bud finialFirst, the frame. A pointed arch, with a leaf-bud at its tip.

2The ten-fold rosetteInside it, a ten-fold rosette. Kites and pentagons, locked in a decagon, repeating without end.

3The stepped-cross borderAround the edge, a quiet row of crosses. Each arm cut in three steps.

4The twelve-petal rosettesAnd in the corners, twelve-petal rosettes, ringed with six-pointed stars.

4 prints, each from a different part

Each print starts from a part of the source

From this partThe ten-fold rosette

Print 1 · All-over

Jaali All-over

What if we kept only the field? The part that broke the sunlight into a moving lattice on the floor.

Opening for opening, as carved. Rose where the light came through. Indigo where the stone was.

Repeat: Straight repeat · tile 2400 × 3357 px · 40.6 × 56.8 cm
Made for: Menswear ethnic labels and shirting mills; Surat process houses running festive kurta ranges
Why it sells: A fine two-colour geometric reads as texture at arm's length and prints cleanly in a single screen pair.

Men's kurta and shirting yardage60 cm widthtwo-colour pigment printTwo colours

From this partThe stepped-cross border

Print 2 · Stripe

Stepped-Cross Stripe

And the border? The plain part, whose only job was to hold the panel in the wall.

The crosses become a stripe. Rows, a rule, a band. And again.

Repeat: Stripe repeat · tile 2400 × 2400 px · 40.6 × 40.6 cm
Made for: Surat saree and suit-set houses for festive polyester georgette; boutique labels for dupattas
Why it sells: The band has a direction and a rhythm, so it runs along a selvedge without a seam decision.

Dupatta and saree border striperunning along the selvedgethree coloursThree colours

From this partThe twelve-petal rosettes

Print 3 · Buta

Rosette Buta

Then the corner. The interlace that filled the space between the arch and the frame.

One rosette, lifted whole, becomes a buta.

Repeat: Half drop repeat · tile 2400 × 2400 px · 40.6 × 40.6 cm
Made for: Womenswear labels and export kidswear buyers; home-textile brands for cushions
Why it sells: One motif on a half-drop spreads evenly with no visible rows, and a two-colour buta costs little to print.

Dress material and kidswearscattered buta at about 6 cmtwo coloursTwo colours

From this partThe arch and bud finial

Print 4 · Placement

Pallu Panel

And the last print is the whole window.

Every opening, as carved. One pallu panel, in the stone's own colours.

Repeat: Placement print, not a repeat
Made for: Saree houses and occasion-wear labels; home-decor brands for a wall panel or table runner
Why it sells: The arch gives the panel a top and a bottom, so it sits as one placement and needs no repeat.

Saree pallu or lehenga panelsingle placement about 110 cm talltwo stone coloursTwo colours

The palette

Every colour here was already in the source. Only the indigo is ours.

#CEAA96Sandstone rose · from the source

#B89582Sandstone · from the source

#584234Shadow stone · from the source

#0B0A0CVoid · from the source

#1B2340Indigo · ours

Why now

Geometric jaali prints are a steady seller for men's kurta, dupatta borders and lehenga panels, and the two-colour positive and negative reading suits pigment and discharge printing without a large palette. Wedding season runs September to December, when this vocabulary is in demand.

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Source: Pierced window screen (jali), India, Second half of the 16th century, the reign of Akbar, Red sandstone, pierced and carved. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Pierced Window Screen (Jali), India, second half 16th century. The Met, Rogers Fund, 1993, accession 1993.67.2. Public domain (CC0)., object 453344. CC0. View the object.

Facts from: metmuseum.org, metmuseum.org.