Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c18.20

c18.20

a few spare copies himself with the object of presenting them to persons of high estate whom he wished to gratify. These copies were not always of the same high standard; inferior or abridged editions were sometimes executed for less exalted officials, but the Jaipur manuscript appears to be the original one specially prepared for preservation in the imperial library at Agra. According to the inscription on the pictures the duty of illustrating the *Razmnāma* was entrusted mainly to the three leading Hindu artists at Akbar’s court, namely, Daswanth, Basawan, and Lal. These three experts were concerned in the majority of the paintings, but in each case they collaborated with another artist so that the work as a whole occupied a large staff. In the two manuscripts comprising this group the method of employing more than one painter on the same composition is most pronounced, very few of the pictures in either being the work of one individual. From the nature of its contents it will be understood that in the subject-matter of the *Razmnāma* there is much that is unreal and fantastic, and some of the scenes must have tried severely the ingenuity of the artists in representing them on paper with any degree of success. Plate XXXIII, one of the illustrations taken from this work, will give some idea of the style. It depicts Nala, the king of Nishadha, and his wife Damayanti, the story of whose adventures is one of the most touching in the whole of this great drama. It was painted by a Muhammadan artist named Sharif, assisted by Kesu, a Hindu. The other volume of this group, the *Tīmūrnāma* at Bankipur, as it concerns itself with an entirely different subject, at first sight appears to bear little similarity to the *Razmnāma*, but a closer study shows that in workmanship there is considerable resemblance. There is the same confused composition in many of these pictures, the same loss of effect by the introduction of too many elements, the same over-elaboration of the scene, but, on the other hand, both contain a sumptuous array of colour, and a sense of action and vitality in the figures, that compensates for much that is not always acceptable to the critical eye. In both these books, as distinct from those of the previous group, there is more equality in the workmanship, and it seems as if the artists who prepared them were better organized, and on a better understanding with one another, so that the pictures throughout are as a whole more even in quality. The *Tīmūrnāma* comprises over a hundred pictures of incidents in what is described as ‘the life of His Majesty Amir Timur, the august hero, the world conqueror, and that of His Majesty’s descendants down to the 22nd year of Akbar, may his deeds be luminous’. A specimen of one of the pictures (fol. 3 b) is reproduced on Plate XXXIV, and depicts a night scene in a mosque with the *muezzin* calling the faithful to prayer. The design was sketched by Madhu Kalan, but the painting was by the brush of Tulsi Kalan.¹ Both books represent a vast amount of labour, and must have occupied a large number of artists some considerable time.