Jalis, three dimentional lattice screens. These screens make interesting surface patterns. It was Islamic architecture that gave birth to jalis. After the eleventh century, when Muslims came to India, some of the most beautiful monuments were constructed with excellent jail patterns, which decorated the surface beauty of the monuments. For example, the tomb of Salim Chisti in Fatehpur Sikri.

Jalis are part of an architectural decoration. The formulation of patterns in the jalis is mathematically calculated considering the different angles, degrees, and symmetry. The basic geometric forms seen in the construction of a jail pattern are a square, a circle, and a triangle. A subdivision of any of these can give us other geometric patterns like a pentagon, a hexagon, an octagon, and so on, as well as a rhombus, triangles, etc. Animal motif and foliage patterns abound, but numerous are still repetitions of abstract forms—circles, crescents, rectangles, and arrangements of stripes and lines.