Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c22.50

c22.50

It has been shown that the two broad divisions into which the Indian miniatures resolve themselves are the Rājput and Mughal—the Hindu and Muhammadan forms of expression respectively. Indian connoisseurs have further referred these into a number of subdivisions or styles known in the vernacular as *qalams*. A literal translation of the word *qalam* is a reed pen, but used in connexion with painting it signifies a brush. The indigenous classification is therefore founded mainly on the technique of the painting—the actual brush-work—although it also has a geographical basis. For while one of the most popular *qalams* or styles is known as the *siyāhī qalam*, a name derived from and denoting its black outline, other miniatures are referred to as Delhi, Jaipur, Patna, &c., according to the art-centre from which they emanated. The *qalams* are in certain respects analogous to the regional dialects of a language, with just the subtle differences that enable those who know that language to distinguish one from the other. And, as one approved literary form of a language may be regarded as the standard speech of a people, so the Delhi *qalam* was the standard style of Mughal painting—the classical form of the art. But while Delhi came to be looked on as the fountain head of the Mughal school of painting, mainly because that city was the political capital of the Mughal empire, after a time other styles began to emerge. A full list of all the Indian *qalams* both Rājput and Mughal is here appended.