Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c13.31.2

c13.31.2

And this indigenous character, this ‘ Indianness ’, is the same as persists and is so plainly discernible in the miniatures of the Hindu artists who worked under the Mughal emperor Akbar nine centuries later. These two styles of work in many respects are poles asunder. Nothing could be more dissimilar than the spacious wall paintings of the Buddhists and the minute book illustrations of the Mughal school; in subject, in intention, in sentiment, in every outward form, they are different, yet underlying each is something of the same spirit, something which reflects in both forms of expression the mind of the same artist. Except for this indefinable sense of co-relation, there is, however, little else to connect these two schools of painting. During the long interval that elapsed between them there is but a small amount of material forthcoming, either literary or artistic, to enable us to construct even the semblance of a bridge between the two. Very gradually, however, evidence is coming to light, which may help to fill this wide lacuna, but at present only sufficient has been collected to produce the barest outlines of the story. Of the actual examples of Indian painting executed during the early mediaeval period few have survived. Their scarcity is due to three causes, firstly, the impermanent nature of the art itself; secondly, the action of the climate; and thirdly, the element of human destruction.