Mughal
painting is distinctive but Indian. It has the flavour of the Persian but the
inborn charm of Indian tradition. Babar, the fifth descendant from Timur, was
aware of the great and remarkable ability of Bihzad, the famous artist of his
time; but engaged as he was in the establishment of his kingdom, having proved
unsuccessful in his attempt at securing Kandahar, the old capital of his
ancestors, and turning his eyes from Kabul to India to secure at least an
eastern expansion from his little rocky kingdom, he could not devote that
attention to art which his son Humayun could. That painting flourished in his
time is clearly seen from the Alwar manuscript of the Persian version of his
Memoirs where the illustrations show the style of painting during his day.
Humayun's
misfortunes drove him to Persia as an exile and Sher Shah's triumph saw Humayun
looking for refuge with Shah Tahmasp of Persia. This was indeed a godsend for
the artistic inclination of Humayun, as the Shah was a great patron of art, and
among his court painters were Bihzad, Mirak and others.
Akbar,
who was very young when he succeeded his father, was an illiterate but
possessed a rare flair for appreciation of learning and art, and probably was
more alert with his ears and eyes than any scholar or connoisseur of his time.
He had an enormous passion for learning and built up a marvellous library of
Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit books. He had the famous books from these
languages translated into others and learnt by listening more than by studies.
Having been himself an artist in his youth, Akbar zealously patronised art and
held the view that the artist who drew with accuracy could only realise the
superiority of the Creator who could even infuse life into the objects that the
artist could just draw so faithfully. Akbar was equally at home in all the fine
arts, and painting flourished at his court. The Akbar Nama, the Razm Nona and
other works were profusely illustrated at his command. The Persian artists who
flocked to his court taught the new technique to the Indian artists and
themselves benefited by absorbing the best elements of indigenous traditions,
with the result that a rare blend of a wonderful new school came into
existence. The names of Manohar, Farukchela, Basawan and Madhu, to mention a
few, were famous during Akbar's days.
The
story of Mughal painting in India may be said to have begun with Khwaja Abdus
Samad of Shiraz who was patronised by Humayun and continued in the time of
Akbar. Daswant, the poor son of a palanquin-bearer whom the emperor Akbar
discovered and apprenticed to Abdus Samad, is a symbol of other Hindu artists
who practised the Persian way and created a new efflorescence of art. Another
great name at Akbar's court amongst the Hindu masters is Basawan. The practice
of signing pictures in this period of art history gives us names of artists at
Akbar's court of which a large number is given in the Ain-e-Akbari like Mukund,
Madhu, Khemkaran, Harbans, Kesavlal and others. The illustrated Babar Nama,
Akbar Nama, Hamza Nama, Razm Nama and other beautifully illustrated manuscripts
of the period are a great artistic achievement. Still in this period, the
Persian treatment of the background and the landscape is obvious, though slowly
this influence, diminishes in the successive periods. The building of Fatehpur
Sikri, the emperor's chase of wild animals and, particularly, the birth of his
second son Murad at Fatehpur Sikri are splendid illustrations in which the
Akbar Nama abounds.
Jehangir,
who had an intelligent wife to manage state-craft, was left with sufficient
leisure to enjoy wine and appreciate art. Probably this was the greatest period
of the renaissance of Mughal art. He was a great patron and maintained a bevy
of painters at his court. In his Memoirs he prides himself on his
connoisseurship, how he could discriminate the work of one artist from that of
another and single out the painting of any individual artist even to the point
of distinguishing any touches added by a subsequent painter on an original by
another. The emperor delighted in beautiful portraits of his and had groups painted
of himself, his lovely queen and his family. Some of the most beautiful animal
and flower patterns were drawn and painted during his day. Portraiture was so
developed that there was a great element of realism during Jehangir's reign.
Mansur and Bishandas amongst several others ranked as very famous painters of
his day. Sir Thomas Roe has left anecdotes throwing light on the emperor's keen
enthusiasm in portrait-painting. It is no wonder that the admirable portraits
of this period evoked the appreciation of the great British painter, Sir Joshua
Reynolds.
Jehangir's
son Shah Jahan was, though a connoisseur, more a builder of great monuments and
a pattern of architecture. Painting flourished, no doubt, during his day, but
its heyday was reached during the time of his father. The puritan Aurangzeb,
who imprisoned his father Shah Jahan and came to the throne, could not probably
provide encouragement to the art that he considered against the tenets of his
religion, and the disappointed artists of the Mughal court had slowly to find a
better atmosphere for survival elsewhere. Thus from this time onwards not only
music was buried deep but art also was driven away to different homes and the
provincial schools in Amritsar, Lahore, Lucknow, Oudh, Murshidabad, Golconda,
and other places absorbed the painters of the Moghal court who were driven to
seek a home elsewhere.
Mughal
art, which started as an art of illustration and excelled in portraiture in the
succeeding period, which was the best, became at last a rather weak expression
of life around in pictorial terms. Starting with a strong Persian bias, it
slowly assimilated a blend of the indigenous with an efflorescence in which the
foreign flavour was finally eliminated almost completely.
No
description of Mughal painting would be complete without a reference to the
delicate treatment of birds, animals and plants which rank among some of the
greatest masterpieces of this period.
Writer
– C.Sivaramamurti
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