Exquisite miniature of the Taj Mahal at Agra, delicately executed by one of the countless anonymous Indian artists who created what became known as the Company School of painting. They skilfully adapted their traditional Mughal style of painting narrative scenes of courtly life and the gods, to more academically rigorous illustrations of the bountiful natural history, topographical and architectural subjects that so fascinated the growing numbers of British functionaries and dependents who arrived as the East India Company (from whence the name derives) opened up the sub-continent from the 1770s through to the middle of the 19th century. The Taj Mahal is a marble mausoleum built by the order of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in the mid-17th century to house his favoruite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. It has always been considered one of the greatest examples of Muslim art, and in modern times has been declared a UNESCO world heritage site.