Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c19.10.1

c19.10.1

From this picture of an interior scene of Jahangir’s durbar we may turn to an opposite effect of an exterior, shown on Plate XXXI, a miniature bearing a name which may be read as Manohar. The work of this artist may be studied in several of the books illustrated during Akbar’s reign, so that he was a man of some repute when Jahangir came to the throne. The picture, evidently one of a series representing the celebrations that took place at the coronation of the last-named emperor, portrays a procession in which the state elephants bearing the royal standard play a leading part. Roe, who saw many such pageants, describes these particular animals as ‘being Lord Elephants, (who) had their chaynes, belles, and furniture of Gould and siluer, attended with many gilt banners and flagges . . . the first having all the plates on his head and breast sett with rubyes and Emeraldes, beeing a beast of a woonderfull stature and beauty. They all bowed downe befor the king, making reuerence very handsomely.’ The two elephants here depicted marching in the place of honour in the procession are the *nishān kā hathī*, or standard bearers, one carrying Jahangir’s personal ensign of the lion and the sun, derived from a Persian source, the other an imperial banner emblazoned with a phoenix and a dragon of Far Eastern design. The latter was obviously obtained direct from China, as it contains the *Ssu ling* or ‘Four Divine Animals’;