Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c16.1.1

c16.1.1

ALTHOUGH the intimate relations that existed between Jahangir and his court painters were not continued by his successor Shah Jahan, nevertheless the latter’s reign was one of remarkable artistic activity. As Prince Khurram he evinced an interest in the subject of painting, as may be gathered from an incident recorded by Roe. The ambassador had presented the heir-apparent with ‘a siluer watch very small, which he tooke kyndly ; but tould mee the Pictures I showed his father the night before, If I had giuen him, hee would have better accepted than any thing ; demanding if I had no more.’ The young emperor-elect was obviously as greedy as Jahangir to possess examples of the European miniature painters’ art. But Shah Jahan’s artistic patronage did not specially confine itself to painting, as did Jahangir’s ; it was more comprehensive, and diffused itself over the whole field of the fine and applied arts, with the result that not only one but all the crafts flourished. This monarch’s name is, however, chiefly associated with architecture, because it is by the many noble buildings erected in his reign that he is most widely known. The palace-fort at Delhi, which he caused to be built not long after he had ascended the throne, although shorn of much of its splendour by subsequent vicissitudes, is a monument to his imperial magnificence.