Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c18.7

c18.7

The pictures of the *Amir Hamzah*, however, stand in a class by themselves; they are too obviously of Persian extraction to be considered as belonging to the Mughal school proper. It is to the other manuscripts in the list of illustrated books prepared under Akbar’s order that we must turn for representative specimens of the work of this school. These resolve themselves into groups in the order in which it is presumed they were executed. In the earliest group may be placed the two British Museum manuscripts, the *Dārābnāma* and the *Bāburnāma*. The next to be produced were no doubt the Jaipur *Razmnāma* and the Bankipur *Tīmūrnāma*, which constituted the second group. Following these come the Bodleian *Bahāristan* and Mr. Dyson Perrins’s *Khamsah*, forming the third group, while last of all, and placed in a class by itself, for reasons which will be explained hereafter, is the South Kensington *Akbarnāma*. A general survey of all the paintings contained in these manuscripts reveals the fact that as a whole they illustrate a style of work different from that executed at any other period of the Mughal school. The dominant note is undoubtedly their Indian character.