Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c21.18

c21.18

Jahangir took the symbol but not the creed, seizing on the halo as an excellent method for distinguishing the Mughal emperor from all others. He fully believed in the divinity of kings ; and symbolized his semi-sanctified state by means of the nimbus in all portraits of himself. In Mughal painting it was reserved strictly for the ruling sovereign of the empire, and in the portraits of no other member of the royal house was it allowed. The idea of its use in this connexion was entirely Jahangir’s, so that it is found in no likenesses of his predecessors painted previous to his own reign; any such portraits which include this appendage have been executed subsequent to Jahangir’s orders on the subject. A rare exception, however, would be any early portrait of his ancestors to which a nimbus has been added by a later hand. There are of course pictures of Hindu and Muhammadan saints whose figures are dignified by a plain gold halo, and, later, some of the other ruling dynasties in India, as for instance the Adil Shahs of Bijapur, adopted the symbol in their portraiture, but its original intention was to provide a recognized sign of the Mughal emperor. In the painting of his time Jahangir made the application of the symbol retrospective. His respect for his father, not specially noticeable during the latter’s lifetime, was rekindled after his death, probably owing to some twinges of remorse, and shows itself in several miniatures in which the son is looking with admiration at a portrait of his parent. In these both monarchs are nimbed. There is an interesting picture of this kind in the Louvre (No. 3676), and the minute portrait of Akbar which Jahangir is holding in his hand depicts the former gazing intently into a large green crystal globe.