Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c15.16

c15.16

Out of this complex array of attributes and imperfections, one feature stands out with singular prominence, one which gathered in intensity as he grew older, which sustained him at all times by the pleasure it gave him, and which illuminated his surroundings with a roseate hue. This was his passionate love of nature, his joy in all the exquisite wonders that the world held for him. For in Jahangir was born the artistic temperament, that aesthetic intuition which, in the words of Walter Pater, enabled him to see and admire all things in their most perfect state of beauty. He knew well that to obtain the full measure of life it was necessary to use this gift freely, to get as many pulsations as possible into the given time, and accordingly his whole nature throbs with ecstasy as he revels in his gardens among flowers or under fruitful trees listening to the music of the birds. All these he loved, as becomes an artist and a poet, and yearned to reproduce them in colour or song. ‘What shall I write of? And how many shall I describe?’ he cries, as he tries in vain to number the flowers of Kashmir, and again, ‘What shall we say of these things or of the wide meadows and the fragrant trefoil?’ And then out of the very fullness of his heart, unable to contain his gladness, he bursts into song: