Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c19.37

c19.37

reminiscent of some of the illuminations in the early fifteenth-century manuscripts of the English school. The picture records the entry of Jahangir into the city of Ajmir in 1613, and his visit to the shrine and tomb of Khwaja Mu‘in ud-din Chishti, the patron saint of Akbar and his descendants. Jahangir relates how he walked the road to the ‘venerated mausoleum’ on foot, all along ‘giving money to faqirs and the necessitous’. He also bestowed favours on those that were ‘brought before me, that they might be made happy with numerous gifts according to their real circumstances’.¹ The artist has included all these incidents: Jahangir and his young son are seen reverently approaching the tomb, while, below, alms to the poor and presents to the attendants are being distributed.