The earliest extant examples of the Mughal baluster columns are found solely in which of the following Mughal emperor's fortress palaces?

Option 3 : Shahjahan

The earliest extant examples of the Mughal baluster columns are found solely in the fortress palaces of Shahjahan.

• In the second quarter of the 17^th century, a new architectural motif appears in the palace architecture of the Mughal emperor Shahjahan.
• This new element in an already extensive vocabulary of Mughal architectural forms is the baluster column.
• It rapidly came to be one of the most widely employed motifs of Indian architecture.
• The earliest extant examples of the Mughal baluster columns are found solely in Shah Jahan's contributions to the three great fortress palaces of Agra, Lahore, and Delhi.
• Among them, the loggia in the Zanana Mina Bazar shows all the characteristics of the Mughal baluster columns.
• A baluster column consists of four parts - base, pot like element, shaft and capital.

• The different elements are separated by protruding rings and an additional concave contraction at the joint between the pot like element and the shaft which forms its bulbs.

Based on the above discussion, we can conclude that the earliest extant examples of the Mughal baluster columns are found solely in the fortress palaces of Shahjahan.