The Mughal court repeatedly relocated and refounded its capital, from Agra to Akbar's purpose-built Fatehpur Sikri, on to Lahore, and finally to Shah Jahan's new walled city of Shahjahanabad (Old Delhi) in 1648. Each move produced major planned ensembles of fort, mosque, bazaar and garden, with Fatehpur Sikri abandoned within decades, reportedly for want of water. The shifts expressed both strategic calculation and the emperor's prerogative to build a city anew.
It shows the imperial capital as a movable instrument of dynastic display, generating some of India's most important planned cities.
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