Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c22.4

c22.4

In India under the Mughals the elementary training prescribed for the student of miniature painting was devised on the lines described above. Not all the courses were exactly the same; they varied in some unimportant details according to the individual ideas of the master-painter, but the usual beginning was as follows. Provided with a brush (*qalam*) made of goat’s hair, a small earthen saucer containing Indian ink (*siyāhī*), and a piece of coarse bamboo paper (*bhansī* or *basāhā*), the student proceeded to draw in brush outline the series of exercises illustrated on Plates LXIX and LXX. As already explained, the beginner devoted his whole time to the initial figure of the series and made himself thoroughly acquainted with this before he was allowed to pass on to the next. The complete series comprised twenty different figures, presumed to be graded according to their increasing difficulty, the first six of which are said to be of early Indian origin, the remainder being derived from Persia. At first sight the initial exercise, that of the spiral (*painchak*), appears to be a difficult introduction to the task which lay before the young student, but the Indian artist had already realized that the drawing of certain curves was easier than a straight ‘right’ line, and arranged his patterns accordingly. From the spiral the pupil passed to the triangle (*tribhuj*, No. 2), and from that to the square (*chaturbhuj*, No. 3), placed diagonally. Then came the essay on the drawing of a ‘right’ line, in the figure of the arrow (*tīr*, No. 4), which occupied two lessons; for the pupil was first required to draw it from below upwards, and having mastered this, he was taught to draw the same figure beginning from above and carrying his brush downwards (No. 5). It is quite natural that after the arrow should come the bow (*kamān*, No. 6), with its combination of curve and straight line. The double curve of the bow was first drawn and the accuracy of this tested by the addition of the line representing the cord.