Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c15.35.3

c15.35.3

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.