Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c14.26

c14.26

It is evident, therefore, when these facts are taken into consideration, that conditions were ripe for a pronounced forward movement in the development of the graphic arts. Only judicious encouragement and intelligent patronage were necessary to stimulate the painters into action. And the Mughal emperor supplied these requisites in a most liberal manner. We have seen Akbar as a mere boy, placed on the insecure throne of his father and confronted with the stupendous task of restoring order in a territory that had long been subjected to foreign invasion, internal strife, and civil wars. But fifteen years have elapsed, the boy has become a man, and the country, so loosely held by Babur and Humayun, has, by his genius and untiring effort, been made into a most powerful and stable empire. The need, therefore, for incessant military and administrative vigilance had passed, and Akbar could now find leisure to devote his abilities to the encouragement of learning, and to begin the task of arousing within his subjects an interest in the arts of peace. The methods by which he put this into practice are significant of Akbar’s policy as a whole. His attitude generally towards his subjects was entirely the reverse of that of his predecessors, and to this different point of view was due much of his success as an empire builder. Akbar saw what both Babur and Humayun had never seen—the inherent capabilities of the Indian people, their culture, their aspirations, and their ideals. He realized that the failure of his forbears and also of his co-religionists, who had established themselves in various parts of India, to maintain anything like harmonious rule was due in a measure to their lack of sympathy with the Indian races, to a disregard of their manners and customs, their arts and sciences, and their mental outlook. These [Figure: XI. Arrival of Tansen, the musician, at the court of Akbar, A.D. 1562 Indian Museum, Calcutta, No. 342 ; size 13" × 9".]