Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c18.1

Language: English

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IF we are to judge from Abu'l Fazl's contemporary account of the state of painting under the Emperor Akbar, it is evident that the Mughals had a high opinion of the skill of the court artists. For his remarks in the *A'in-i-Akbari* on the subject are quite clear. 'Here', writes the famous historian, 'the art flourishes, and many painters have obtained great reputation.' 'Here', he continues, 'most excellent painters are now to be found, and master-pieces, worthy of Bihzad, may be placed at the side of the wonderful works of the European painters who have attained world-wide fame. The minuteness in detail, the general finish, the boldness of execution, &c., now observed in pictures, are incomparable; even inanimate objects look as if they had life.' This is high praise indeed. It should be explained, however, that Abu'l Fazl was a consummate flatterer, and his writings were largely devoted to a fulsome eulogy of his august master and all that he did. But although given to exaggeration, and although he had no expert knowledge of painting, the fact should not be overlooked that he was a refined and educated man, and probably the leading intellectual at Akbar's court. His opinion, therefore, in spite of its technical failings, carries some weight, and should receive consideration in any review of the painting of his time. Pictorial art under the Mughals, according to the same authority, specialized in two directions, that of portraiture and of book-illustrating.

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Of the former very few authentic examples remain, as the albums of celebrities prepared at Akbar's order have been broken up and dispersed. But of the pictured manuscripts quite a number have been preserved, from which it is possible to gain a comprehensive idea of this aspect of Mughal painting. As this art had been derived from Persia, it is only natural that at first it imitated in every respect the productions of the Safavid artists, even to confining its activities almost entirely to illustrating the classical literature of ancient Iran. So we find Abu'l Fazl recording that 'Persian books, both prose and poetry, were ornamented with pictures, and a very large number of paintings was thus collected. The story of Hamzah was represented in twelve volumes, and clever painters made the astonishing illustrations for no less than one thousand and four hundred passages of the story. The Chingiz-namah, the Zafarnamah, this book, the Razmnamah, the Ramayan, the Nal Daman, the Kalilah wa Damnah, the Ayar Danish, &c., were all illustrated.’ Several of the actual manuscripts here referred to, and containing the original pictures by the Akbari artists, together with a number of others not in Abu’l Fazl’s list, have survived, and we are thus presented with adequate material for study.

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These works are scattered among various museums, art galleries, libraries, and collections, but the principal ones are located as follows : In the British Museum there is a copy of the Bāburnāma, or Babur’s Memoirs (Or. 3714), and a Dārābnāma (Or. 4615); the latter is an edition of the Shāhnāma, or Book of Kings, prepared in the form of a series of stories by a writer of the name of Abu Tahir. The same institution also possesses a small volume by the poet Jami (Or. 1362 N.B. 36), and another minute manuscript catalogued as Grenville Or. 7573. Exhibited in the Indian Section of the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, is a series of one hundred and seventeen pictures from the Akbarnāma, or ‘History of Akbar’ (Clarke MSS.), as well as twenty-five illuminated pages from the celebrated copy of the Amir Hamzah, or ‘Story of Hamzah’ (No. 1513-1883, I.S.). Both manuscripts are included in Abu’l Fazl’s list in the A’in-i-Akbari. The Museum also displays a few illustrations from a fragmentary copy of the Bāburnāma (Waqi‘at-i-Babari, I.M. 262). Of the remaining large number of paintings which originally comprised the Amir Hamzah, sixty-one are in the Museum for Art and Industry at Vienna, and one or two stray leaves are preserved in other European collections. The Bodleian Library, Oxford, possesses a copy of Jami’s Bahāristan or ‘Season of Spring’ (Elliott 254), and the collection of Mr.

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Dyson Perrins of Malvern, Worcestershire, contains a manuscript of Nizāmī’s Khamsah, both of which are illustrated. In India there are two large volumes profusely pictured, a Razmnāma, the property of H.H. the Maharaja of Jaipur, mentioned in the A’in-i-Akbari list, and a Timūrnāma (Tarikh-i-Khandan-i-Timuriyya), or ‘History of the House of Timur’, in the Oriental Public Library at Bankipur.