Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c19.7

c19.7

While colour is the outstanding feature of this miniature, the outline that defines it calls for description. Much of the expression in this line is due to its calligraphic character, denoting at once its connexion with the long, firm, flowing sweep of the Arabic script brought to India by the Mughals. In this lies its main contrast with the painting of the Rājput school. The latter is also an art of outline, but not in any sense a calligraphic one, for the indigenous style of painting borrowed nothing from the handiwork of the writer; a glance at the square, almost crabbed, Hindi characters in use all over Northern India will explain this. In comparing Rājput outline drawing with that of the Mughals, it might be said that the fine