Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c11.8

c11.8

Miniature painting was therefore only one of many arts and industries which at this time were imported into Hindustan, to undergo a transformation in the hands of its skilled craftsmen. The emperors, personally interested in its development, took definite measures for its encouragement, maintaining as part of their retinue a staff of artists, both Persian and Indian, skilled in this form of painting, and employing them in working out their own ideas. So in the course of time came into being the Mughal school of miniature art, which, as it was inspired by the founders of the dynasty, reflected in its subject-matter and in its intention the mind of the ruling power. But this method of expression originally derived from Persia having found its way into the country, although taken up so enthusiastically by the emperors themselves, did not become the close monopoly of the Mughal court. It attracted in addition many of the indigenous artists of India—hereditary painters—trained for generations to the use of the brush, but unacquainted, up to then, with the art of painting in its miniature form; these readily accepted the new style of technique, adapted it to suit their particular ideas, and soon evolved a school of their own. Their method of work resembles the Mughal art in treatment, but in its motives, in sentiment, and in temper generally, it strikes an entirely different note. As it is associated largely with the Rājputs of Rājputāna and parts of the Punjab, this phase of the art has become known as Rājput or Rāja-sthānī. While the Mughal school therefore confined itself to portraying the somewhat materialistic life of the court, with its state functions, processions, hunting expeditions, and all the picturesque although barbaric pageantry of an affluent oriental dynasty, the Rājput painters, living mentally and bodily in another and more abstract environment, and working for Hindu patrons, pictured scenes from the Indian classics, domestic subjects, and illustrations of the life and thought of their motherland and its creed. In defining the main characteristics of each of these phases of miniature painting, it should be emphasized that the distinctions between the two are more real than apparent. Except for a few artists brought from Persia who lived entirely within the circle of the Mughal court, both arts were in the hands of Indian craftsmen, mainly Hindus, and the heirs of the ancient Buddhist painter-priests. The difference really was a personal one, and lay in the artist’s election to take service under the emperor, working according to his patron's ideas and in the recognized official style, or while accepting the advantages of the new and improved method imported by the Mughals, in his continuing to paint according to his own native traditions. Moreover some of the painters of an adaptable nature found themselves able to work at will in both styles, and at times produced pictures which displayed the characteristics of each. The dividing line therefore is an indeterminate one; and large collections of Indian miniatures will often contain a number of paintings which may be referred to either school.