Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c15.35

Language: English

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It was Jahangir’s custom to have two or three of these artists always in attendance, attached continually to his suite. To some of these he showed almost a parental care for their welfare, for concerning Abu’l-Hasan, already mentioned, he writes, ‘ my connection was based on my having reared him. From his earliest years up to the present time I have always looked after him, till his art has arrived at this rank. Truly he has become Nadir uz-Zamān (the wonder of the age).’ These artists not only spent their lives at the court, but travelled about with the emperor whenever he went on his very frequent tours in order to transfer to paper any subject in which he showed a special interest. The Mughals seem to have employed their court painters principally in the capacity of ‘ special artists ’, to make pictorial records of any passing events. In the time of Jahangir, this occupation, although it had its responsibilities, was an easy one in comparison with the strenuous existence of those on the staff of Akbar. On one occasion the latter took with him three of his leading painters, Sanwal Das (Sanwlah), Jagannath, and Tara Chand, on a forced march of nearly six hundred miles in eleven days across the Rājputāna deserts at the hottest time of the year, ending in the battle of Sarnal, of which Sanwlah made a stirring picture.

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The story of this ride—much of it accomplished on swift she-camels—is most graphically told in the *Akbarnāma*,¹ and shows that all those who aspired to serve this monarch, even his artists, had to be men of mettle, and able to endure the utmost hardship. But Jahangir’s progress through life was of a more leisurely order, and the subjects that he commissioned his artists to paint were not battles and sieges, beloved of his father, but incidents of peace. Many of these he described fully in his memoirs, and at the end of each account he almost invariably added the words, ‘ I ordered my painters to make its picture ’. And so we have every object that excited his attention, and every incident in which he figured, realistically set down by his court artists who were always at hand to carry out his behests. The most important of these pictures are generally those in which the emperor occupied the central position, and in all collections of Indian miniatures some of these are to be found. With these before us we may follow his movements and even share in the innocent pleasures with which he varied his indulgent life. Here we may see him travelling in state to Kandahar accompanied by appropriately attired officials and discussing with them everything that attracted his notice (Plate XIX). Again, at the end of the day’s march, he is depicted resting in a garden, one of those formally designed retreats in which the Mughals loved to spend their leisure hours.

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The painter has depicted the shrubs and trees in full bloom, with birds shyly lingering amidst the blossoms. In the midst, seated on a richly embroidered carpet, the emperor converses with those about him on the delights of his surroundings (Plate XLIX). As a contrast to this idyll, in another picture we see him in the forefront of the chase, his dreaminess cast to the winds, as with the lust of the hunter expressed in every movement he brings down the black buck with his arrow, or with his musket slays the lion (Plate XLII). Now he appears, accompanied by his young son, reverently approaching the mausoleum of a saint, an act of devotion for which he has made days of preparation (Plate XX). Then we see him in the most resplendent scene of all, seated on a gold and jewelled throne, with a shining halo around his head, lavishly attired in silk and brocades, and hung with pearls and precious stones. Around him are groups of courtiers, almost as richly dressed as himself, assisting him in maintaining with due ceremony the dignity of his imperial state (Frontispiece). With this brilliant function we may compare another very different picture, where, plainly robed and with deferential air, seated on the ground he pays homage to a religious mendicant, whose only habitation is the shadow of a gnarled peepul tree, and whose companions are the wild beasts.

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Anon he is supervising the construction of a summer-house, discussing with his builder the plan of the pavilion, there he is laying out a garden, fixing the positions of the fountains, cascades, and flower beds; now he is out hawking, or watching the fighting rams or ponderous elephants engaged in combat, here admiring a firework display—but the number of these pictures is unending, and the scenes and effects ever varied.