Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c11.5

Language: English

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The earlier Mughal emperors—Humayun and Akbar—introduced the art of miniature painting into Hindustan from Persia. Their action in this particular represents, however, only one comparatively small item in a fairly wide movement. From the nature of this movement it may be termed the ‘ Persianization ’ of Northern India. In the train of these emperors was a great medley of Asiatic tribes—Persians, Mongols, Uzbegs, Turks, Kalmacks, and Afghans—who came under the generic name of Mughals. Selections from these comprised the Mughal court, and they also figured prominently among the officials of the administration. When the Mughals first arrived in Hindustan, they found the country in a state of chaos, out of which they proceeded to bring some kind of order, and, subsequently, to reorganize many of its native institutions. To help them in their work of reconstruction they instinctively turned to Persia for guidance, a neighbouring empire which under the effective rule of the Safavids was beginning to proclaim itself a great power. Although not actually of that country themselves, the traditions of the Mughal dynasty, through its Timurid ancestry, were linked with those of Persia. Further, throughout much of their history, Persia and India were geographically much closer than they are to-day, as their boundaries marched together, where is now the barrier of Afghanistan.

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Evidences of an intermittent association between the two civilizations before the arrival of the Mughals are well known. While it cannot be said that Akbar took as his model the rule of the Safavids—he was too original and independent to be a mere plagiarist—that he leaned heavily on it for some of his projects is clear. In this he was naturally aided by the many Persian officers in his service, the number of whom, instead of diminishing as the dynasty progressed, tended to increase under his successors. Even as late as the last half of the seventeenth century they continued to find employment all over India, for a writer of Aurangzeb's time remarks ‘that in the Empire of the Great Mogul, as well as in the kingdoms of Golconda and Bijapur, the Persians are in possession of the highest posts’.¹ So it came about that Northern India was ruled by a government which used Persian as its court language, and conducted all state correspondence through the same foreign medium. In the official records and in the whole of the departmental routine, Persian was the language usually employed. Naturally this reacted on every activity of the country. But though Persianized to this extent it must not be inferred that the administration was entirely an alien one, imposed on the country without any consideration for its indigenous culture.

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On the contrary the Mughal emperors, notably Akbar, made every possible use of the conditions that already existed, encouraging the traditional systems of their subjects in the most liberal manner. Many of the institutions that the Mughals established in India, while Persian in origin, were modified by Indian contributions to suit their Indian environment. In a variety of the forms of human activity that ensued, a combination of Persian and Indian elements is observable; in literature, art, architecture, industries, in the planning of their gardens, even down to fruit cultivation, the best that the two countries could offer was utilized. Perhaps the effect on the language of the people that this policy produced will most readily illustrate what was taking place. When the Mughals began their rule the indigenous vernacular of Hindustan, especially in the country around Delhi, was Hindi. But, as we have seen, with the establishment of Akbar's government, Persian was recognized as the official and literary language in court circles and among the bureaucracy generally. Gradually the educated Indians accepted this foreign tongue, regarding it as a mark of elegance and fashion, just as French was affected by all those who aspired to any consideration in England after the Norman conquest.

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Persian words and phrases speedily found their way into the speech of the common people, being used as a convenient medium of communication between the extensive entourage of the Mughals and the original inhabitants of the country. Before long there grew up that *lingua franca* of Northern India, known as Urdu, a ‘highly Persianized form of Hindi which nevertheless continued to retain the grammatical structure of an Indian tongue ’.¹ And as with the language, so with many other forms of expression, artistic and literary, identically the same process was taking place.