Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c14.46

Language: English

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In drawing attention to the foreign artists at the Mughal court, it should be emphasized that those only are named of whom definite records are available. It is more than probable that there were others, of lesser repute, who were attracted thither by the emperor’s unbounded patronage, although of these no accounts have been preserved. But apart from the personal element from Persia in the school, there was another and equally important source in the country, also of foreign origin, from which the Indian artists undoubtedly drew some of their inspiration. This was the imperial library of the Mughals. By the time Akbar’s empire in India was an accomplished fact, this institution already contained manuscripts and illuminated books of unparalleled value, so that it claimed to be not only a library but a picture gallery. The Mughals, like all the Timurids, were great bibliophiles. Babur set the example, and began by acquiring historic volumes whenever his unsettled circumstances would permit. It is related that on the fall of the Timurid dynasty, after the plunder of Herat by the Turkomans, and the destruction of Samarqand by the uncouth Uzbegs, such was his affection for books and pictures that amid the wreck of these cities he managed to rescue many priceless manuscripts from the ruined habitations of his ancestors. These he took with him to Hindustan, there to form the nucleus of a library that, under his successors, was to expand into magnificent proportions.

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Humayun, whose interest in books was instinctive, added also to the collection, and each member of the dynasty made his contribution whenever he found himself able to do so. To Akbar, however, the great mass of the collection was mainly due, and at the time that he was gathering around him much literary and artistic talent these books and pictures were most frequently used. Some idea of the contents of the library can be gained from the rare examples bearing the imperial seals which have survived, and it is not difficult to visualize the contents of this storehouse of literature and art, and to appreciate its educational value to the scholar or the painter. In its illustrative and pictorial sections alone it appears to have been singularly rich, and, under the able superintendence of Maktub Khan, who we learn was in sole charge of both the library and picture gallery, the institution was well administered. Here the painter could study examples of the primitives of his art—Arabian manuscripts from Baghdad—which in their rich but crude embellishments showed traces of a connexion with the mosaic saints of the Byzantine church. From these he would pass to volumes from a Mongol source, whose pictures of battles and feasts, although barbaric in their subject-matter, betrayed in their refined treatment the unmistakable influence of the art of China under the Yuan dynasty.

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Associated with these, but a little more advanced in style, would be Timurid manuscripts, whose decorated pages showed the method of painting which prevailed under the ancestors of his own Mughal patrons. And, probably, most studied of all would be the collection of books containing illustrations by the Safavid school of painters, some of whom were still living in Akbar’s time and carrying on their art in the studios of Tabriz, Shiraz, and Herat. Among the treasured volumes in this section none would be more prized than those containing the work of that small group of Persian artists who, even then, were being regarded as the great masters of the craft. Bihzad, Sultan Muhammad, Aga Mirak, and Muzaffar Ali were at this early date names to conjure with, and their pictures to be referred to with the sincerest admiration. All these famous artists were represented in the royal collection at the Mughal capital. One volume alone which has been preserved to this day, and still bearing the imperial seals of the dynasty, boasts of twelve pictures of the Persian school, eight of them the handiwork of the illustrious Bihzad himself. With this wealth of artistic material at their service, Akbar’s court painters were provided with every facility for a study of the historic and contemporary examples of their art, and that they were encouraged to do so by their royal patron is also recorded.

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For Akbar ordered his artists to make copies of these pictures, and to endeavour, if possible, to excel them, in his zeal to improve the standard of their work. It is no exaggeration, therefore, to say that what the National Gallery is to the English art student, so was the imperial library of the Mughals to the artists of their time.