Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c20.34.1

c20.34.1

Unfortunately the painting is much damaged, not only have portions of the composition been cut entirely away, but in the case of some of the faces the surface is so abraded that definition in the reproduction is almost impossible. Sufficient remains, however, to show that the picture was an exceptionally fine one, and the portraits carefully studied. In the centre, seated under the canopy, is the Amir Timur, and beside him is Akbar either receiving or handing him a book. The rest of the company include, on the left Mirza Kamran, the second son of Babur, with his elder brother Humayun. Babur himself comes next, conversing with his father ‘Umar Shaikh, whose appearance has already been described on page 143, in the extract from the former’s memoirs. The remaining three princes on the same side are Sultan Abu Sa‘id, Sultan Muhammad, and Miran Shah. On the opposite side of the pavilion, to the right, are three illustrious Timurid princes—Abu Bakr Mirza, a son of Shah Rukh; his brother, Baisunghar Mirza, a man of letters and a patron of art, after whom one of the sub-schools of Persian painting has been named, and, on the extreme right, their father, Shah Rukh himself, the fourth and most famous son of Timur. The whole picture is reproduced on Plate LX, with an enlarged portion on Plate XII, while the features of two of the most famous Mughals therein are also reproduced, the size of the originals, Babur on Plate IV, and Akbar on Plate LX, Fig. 2.