Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c14.37

Language: English

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that Akbar’s liking for pictures was so pronounced that he was prepared to put aside his religious convictions in order to enjoy to the full his pleasure in the painter’s art. The authority for these opinions is Abu’l Fazl, and they are found in his article on ‘The Art of Painting’ in the *A’in-i-Akbari* or ‘Institutes of Akbar’, a book dealing with every aspect of the Great Mughal’s administration. Were it not for this notable chapter, written about the year 1590, we should know very little of the internal arrangements of Akbar’s scheme for the encouragement of pictorial art. But from this it is possible to visualize quite clearly his State school of painting. In the first place it was directly under his own personal control, as ‘the works of all painters were weekly laid before His Majesty by the daroghahs and the clerks; he then confers rewards according to excellence of workmanship, or increases the monthly salaries’. The efficiency of such a department can be imagined when its output was, at such frequent and regular intervals, supervised by the emperor himself, and the scale of remuneration of each individual worked out by the same high authority. The number of painters employed was fairly large, amounting to considerably over a hundred, and they were all accommodated in a large studio, suitable for their work, in Akbar’s newly built capital.

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The master-painters of the school were the two Persians, Abdus Samad and Mir Sayyid Ali, but the remainder consisted almost entirely of Hindus. For the skill of the indigenous artist had not passed unnoticed by the observant emperor, and a selection of these craftsmen had been made, so that they might work in conjunction with the Persian painters, and thus increase the productiveness of the school. Their talent, once recognized and encouraged in this manner, seems to have astonished the Mughals, for Abu’l Fazl pays them a generous tribute and admits that ‘their pictures surpass our conceptions of things. Few indeed, in the whole world are found equal to them.’ Undoubtedly the natural genius of these Indian painters, the result of centuries of experience, only required Akbar’s patronage and the Persians’ guidance to bring it again to a high state of efficiency. As we shall see later, their services were utilized mainly in two branches of art, namely, portraiture and book illustration, which were the principal features of the pictorial section of this department. Added to this was a decorative section consisting of a staff of ‘ornamental artists, gilders, line-drawers, and pagers’ whose craftsmanship was a necessary accompaniment to the work of preparing a Mughal miniature or illuminated manuscript.

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But the most practical part of Akbar’s scheme, and one which shows the thoroughness of his nature, relates to the improvement of the materials used in this form of painting, what may be termed the technical section. Information with regard to this is derived from the statement that ‘much progress was made in the commodities required by painters, and the correct prices of such articles were carefully ascertained. The mixture of colours has especially been improved.’ The need for such a section is at once apparent. The school was a new departure, its intention being to practise a different form of expression from that previously carried on in the country. No longer were artists to paint large scenes on the surface of walls in coarse *tempera* colours, which could be readily repainted when injured by the climate or the passage of time. Instead they were required to adapt this art to small pictures on paper, carefully and minutely drawn and coloured, which were to be a lasting record of each painter's individual skill. Special kinds of paper and pigments were therefore needed, brushes of a suitable fineness to be prepared, and all the delicate mediums and adhesives obtained, which this decisive change of technique necessitated. Many of these commodities were little known in India, as for instance paper, which had only just begun to be used.

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This material, so essential to the art of painting, therefore had to be procured, and was first of all imported from Persia, although afterwards paper manufactories were established in India by the Mughals. Under the Persian artists the preparation of pigments for miniature painting had received much attention, and these, or the formulae for them, were placed at the service of the Indian artists. The latter had their own palettes, but were ready to add to these any colours or mediums which would aid them in obtaining good results in this new form of pictorial art.