A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c20.s2.2

c20.s2.2

Many, perhaps most, of the extant Indo-Persian compositions are anonymous, but hundreds are signed, and it would not be difficult to compile a list of the names of from one hundred to two hundred artists. Abūl Fazl's list of those considered by him to be the most eminent numbers seventeen persons, all of whom, with possibly one exception, are represented by extant works. In one manuscript, the *Wāqiāt-i-Bābarī*, or history of Bābar, written and illustrated about A. D. 1600, towards the close of Akbar's reign (B.M. Or. 3714), I noted the names of twenty-two artists, and probably overlooked several. Similar long lists might be put together from other collections. Unfortunately nearly all the names thus freely recorded are mere names, nothing being known concerning the men who bore them, so that the perusal of nominal lists offers little of interest.