Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c21.3.1

c21.3.1

During the long course of its history no date has been more momentous to India than the dawn of the sixteenth century. At this particular time two entirely different forces were appearing on the horizon, in almost opposite directions, each in its turn to spread over the whole of the sub-continent, and profoundly to affect its future. On the north-west frontier were the Mughals under Babur, whose progress and whose influences on the art of the country have been already dealt with in the preceding chapters. On the south-west seaboard the Portuguese navigator, Vasco da Gama, had landed, and with his arrival India’s direct intercourse with Europe began. What this intercourse has led to may be seen in the constitution of the country at the present day, with which, however, we are not concerned. But the effect that such contact had on the arts of India, and specifically on the painting of the Mughals, is a necessary portion of the present study. Previous to the appearance of the Portuguese ships off Calicut in 1498, indirect communication between India and the West had been maintained for a very long time. By land it was conducted over caravan routes across Persia, and by sea the Venetians through Arab bottoms had established a thriving trade with the merchants of Gujarāt.