Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c16.3

c16.3

Besides its value as a work of art, however, this picture has a certain historical interest. It has been pointed out that the ambassador is shown not bowing low before the emperor as was the custom in India, but saluting him with head erect after the fashion of his own country, a fact which the artist has faithfully reproduced. Interpreted by the sensitive Mughal ruler as a sign of disrespect, the Persian’s action was the beginning of a sequence of misunderstandings which did not improve the strained relations already existing between the two powers. The breach had originated in Jahangir’s reign, and the bone of contention was the possession of Kandahar, which, situated on the borders of the two empires, was destined in less than a hundred years to be four times taken over by the Persians and three times handed back to the Mughals. When Shah Jahan came to the throne the mission depicted in the miniature had apparently been dispatched from Ispahan with the object of propitiating the new emperor, and smoothing over any difficulties which had arisen previously. Whether the Mughal’s resentment was too deep to be allayed by gifts, or the ambassador selected was deficient in tact—there appear to have been faults on both sides—in either case a series of discreditable scenes was the result. Several of these have been related by Bernier, and one of the most important had some connexion with the picture now being described. ‘When Shah-Jahan’, writes the French traveller, ‘had made several fruitless attempts to subdue the arrogance of the ambassador, whom no arguments or caresses could induce to salute the *Great Mogol* according to the *Indian* mode, he devised this artifice to gain his end. He commanded that the grand entrance of the court leading to the *Am-kas*, where he intended to receive the ambassador, should be closed, and the wicket only left open; a wicket so low that a man could not pass through without stooping, and holding down the head as is customary in doing reverence *à l’indienne*. Shah-Jahan hoped by this expedient to have it in his power to say that the ambassador, in approaching the royal presence, bowed the head even nearer to the ground than is usual in his court; but the proud and quick-sighted *Persian*, penetrating into the *Mogol’s* design, entered the wicket with his back turned toward the king. Shah-Jahan, vexed to see himself overcome by the ambassador’s stratagem, said indignantly, “*Eh-bed-bakt* (Ah, wretch!) didst thou imagine thou wast entering a stable of asses like thyself?” “I did imagine it”, was the answer; “who, on going through such a door, can believe he is visiting any but asses ? ” ’¹ Such is one of several stories regarding the passages of arms which took place between the two principal personages shown in this picture.