Moti Masjid -Agra
The Moti Masjid ‘Pearl Mosque’ in Agra was built by Shah Jahan. Moti Masjid earned the epithet Pearl Mosque for it shone like a pearl. It is held that this mosque was commissioned by Shah Jahan for his members of the royal court. ‘The building of the mosque, which was commenced in Hijri 1056-57 (1618), occupied seven years and completed in Hijri 1063 (1652 AD), being the 26th year Shah Jahan’s reign. The cost was three hundred thousand rupees.’
Below is a collage of 19th-century painting of the Moti Masjid by Vasily Vereshchagin, Russian imperial painter who visited India more than once; and the albumen photograph, may be taken by the English photographer Samuel Bourne for a comparison. Here, it also seems that Vereshchagin has used the photograph taken by Bourne for the reference of his great paintings.