Quotes from Kunal Basu

Under the Mughals Agra became the world - its streets busting with men and women of all faiths, colours, ringing with the sound of many tongues. perhaps it's arrogance was its downfall

He had kept Bihzad illiterate, so that he would discover his own secrets before he discovered the secrets in books, before words and numbers spoilt his love for glowing images.

The singing bird lives in a cage. The owl roams free

You must see what He sees. Not the view of the mortal, but a glorious world washed clean in magical light and dazzling with colour. You must copy in miniature the world He has drawn. One where everything is carefully chosen, the profusion of nature simplified, men and women incomparably beautiful, everything as precious and perfect as He willed them to be.... The artist is closest of all to the Creator.

How will I leave his realm, Bizhad wondered, clutching Akbar's order. Had the emperor played a cruel joke on him, condemning him to roam the length and breadth of this world? He would lie awake at night worrying, confer with passing travelers during the day, starting to distrust his driver's motives…