Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c15.43

c15.43

Jahangir spent much of his leisure in travelling about his dominions, revelling in the gardens he had built, visiting various historical localities in the plains, and enjoying the glorious scenery of the mountains. To many of these places he went again and again, often erecting sumptuous summer-houses in these retreats that pleased him most, where he was wont to linger many days on end. Where the hand of nature failed, he supplied the deficiency by the hand of his trained artists, painting the walls of these dwellings with scenes and designs of the most gratifying description. At Ajmere he built the *Chashma-i-Nur*, or ‘Fountain of Light’, of which he writes, ‘they have made agreeable places and enchanting halls and resting rooms pleasant to the senses. These have been constructed and finished off in a masterly style by skilled painters and clever artists.’ Of another of these abodes of ease he remarks, ‘the picture gallery in the garden had been ordered to be repaired; it was now adorned with pictures by master hands. In the most honoured positions were the likenesses of Humayun and of my father opposite to my own, and that of my brother Shah Abbas. After them were the likenesses of Mirza Kamran, Mirza Muhammad Hakim, Shah Murad, and Sultan Daniyal. On the second story (row?) were the likenesses of the Amirs and special servants. On the walls of the outer hall the stages of the road to Kashmir were recorded in the order in which I had come to them.’ This must have been a very elaborately decorated dwelling, a pavilion and portrait gallery combined. It was, however, in this beautiful valley of Kashmir that Jahangir’s aesthetic soul found its greatest delight, and here he spent many of his happiest days—it is recorded that he travelled the long and difficult road there on some thirteen separate occasions. It is hardly to be wondered at, that, at the end of his journey, he liked to find his rest in a garden house, situated in the most beautiful surroundings and lavishly decorated with the art in which he had taken a lifelong pleasure. In the flowers of the valley Jahangir showed the utmost joy, and in his descriptions of these, which frequently occur in his memoirs, his artistic spirit is clearly revealed. ‘Wherever the eye reaches, there are verdure and running water—the red rose, the violet, and the narcissus grow of themselves; in the fields, there are all kinds of flowers and all sorts of sweet-scented herbs. In the soul-enchanting spring the hills and plains are filled with blossoms; the gates, the walls, the courts, the roofs, are lighted up by the torches of banquet-adorning tulips . . . thank God that on this occasion I beheld the beauties of the spring.’ With the wonderful variety of the flowers Jahangir seems to have been entranced, and eventually he commissioned his leading artist, Ustad Mansur, to paint as many as he could find. Later he states that the number that had been already copied exceeded a hundred. Duplicates of some of these were afterwards included in the album of Dara Shikoh, one of which is reproduced on Plate XXII, Fig. 2.