Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c12.167

c12.167

It is only necessary to compare the present position of Indian artists with that of their forefathers to see the evil our whole administrative system works upon art in India. In the time of Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan, the best artists became grandees of the Court and sometimes intimate friends of the Emperor himself. In Rajputana, also, under Hindu rule, painters and architects held dignified positions at Court; and, besides extremely liberal pecuniary rewards, they were often given special honours and grants of land. In the Imperial Library at Calcutta there is preserved a Persian manuscript giving the names of the designers and chief constructors of the Taj Mahal at Agra and the salaries they received. The three principal designers were each paid a thousand rupees a month; another received eight hundred; six others four hundred, and nine others from two hundred to four hundred a month. These salaries would represent a considerably larger sum in present Indian currency. But the descendants of these men in India, who practise their profession now with little less ability, though their opportunities for exercising it are miserably few, are considered well paid at thirty, forty, or sixty rupees a month: and what Indian artist under our administration has ever received any sort of honour or reward except a paltry and miserably designed medal at an exhibition, for which he is sometimes called upon to pay?