MUGHAL PAINTING

Q: Discuss the contributions made by Akbar and Jahangir to the field of

paintings.

Medieval India was a landmark period in the history of painting in the

country as one can clearly notice substantial changes coming to the fore in
the art of painting in its numerous aspects. The new trend in painting
undoubtedly owed its evolution largely to the patronage it received from the
Muslim rulers but especially the Mughal court. Although, both Babur and
Humayun had shown great interest in the field of arts, they did not have the
time to indulge in such leisures as they were busy consolidating their
position in India. Thus, the real foundation for the Mughal school of painting
came only during the reign of Akbar, which was given further impetus
during the reign of Jahangir.

The Mughals had brought with them Turko-Mongol cultural traditions,

which mingled with the rich cultural traditions pre-existing in the country.
At first, the different components of Mughal painting were fairly easy to
distinguish - its expressive line and decorative polish were taken from
Persia, its compositional energy and bright colours came from India and its
illusionist devices were selectively borrowed from Europe. By the late 16 th
century, however, these diverse components were skillfully blended into a
coherent and highly refined whole that was neither Persian nor Indian nor
European, but distinctively “Mughal”.

Akbar was a great patron of art and was endowed with exquisite aesthetic
genius. Abul Fazl informs us that Akbar had nurtured a special fondness for
the art of painting from his earliest youth and looked upon art as a means
both of study and amusement. Moreover, he also encouraged art as he
considered it to be a source of wisdom and an antidote against the poison of
ignorance. It was during his reign that the foundation for the Mughal School
of Miniature Art was laid down and portraiture and book illustration also
emerged.

Akbar created favourable conditions for the flowering of the ‘arts of peace’.
Fatehpur Sikri became a center for literature and arts after creation in 1569.
Soon after, Akbar founded an Imperial Atelier, under his personal care and
control. Here, over a hundred painters, mostly Hindus, were employed to
work under the two Persian master-artists, Abdus Samad and Mir Sayyid Ali.
They were trained in various styles – while some worked in simplified
and/or Indianized versions of Persian schools favoured by pre-Mughal
Sultans, others painted in various indigenous South Asian styles used to
illustrate texts in Indian languages, and still others worked in the Jain styles
of Gujarat and Rajasthan. Some painters specialized in depicting specific
subjects or themes (portraits, court scenes etc.). Their work was organized
by studio masters or administrators, who assigned projects to artists and
supervised their efforts. Since they belonged to the imperial studios, these
artists had access to the finest papers, pigments, brushes, and other
materials. Akbar also encouraged painters with bonuses and increase of
salaries in proportion to their progress in pursuit of their painting. Gradually
a unified style developed, combining the sensitive elegance of Persian
painting with the vibrant colours and lively action of the Indian style.

Jahangir’s reign, according to Percy Brown, saw the maturing of the Mughal
paintings. This was the period of transformation rather than innovation.
Jahangir had exhibited a love for painting in his early 20s and he too
established an atelier soon after he arrived in Allahabad. The artists of this
studio worked in two distinctive modes: the first was a simplified and more
focused version of the Akbari court style; the second was a precise, flat and
highly decorative style inspired by Safavid paintings that was given a great
deal of encouragement by Jahangir. It was during his reign that the Persian
and the indigenous art finally fused into one. Farrukh Beg was the leader of
the school and the last foreign artists were Muhammad Nadir and
Muhammad Murad from Samarqand. It was during the reign of Jahangir that
margin-painting developed along with the specialization of the artists.
Moreover, it was his love for nature that led to the emergence of “zoological
portraits” and the use of flowers in decorative art and margin-painting.

Two main branches of art developed under Akbar - portraiture and book
illustration, depicting poetic, historical and religious subjects as well as
nature studies. The art of portraiture was not a Mughal innovation; portraits
existed in India long before the Mughals. But they were always idealized
representations of individuals, not exact likenesses. The Mughals were the
first to introduce visually-accurate portraiture to India. Illustrated
genealogical trees like the ‘Princes of the House of Timur’ were made to
show Emperor’s in close communion with his forbears. According to Abul
Fazal, Akbar sat for a portrait himself, and also commissioned true
likenesses of important nobles, courtiers and other personalities, many of
which were mounted in large albums. However, this was mainly a masculine
art that largely neglected the depiction of women. Some leading artists were
Bhagwati and Hunar. This type of art was patronized by Jahangir as well.

Extremely fine outlines of the features are made in a fine grey or neutral
colour. Delicate & carefully blended tones were used to represent the
different qualities of the face. Among the methods of representation, the
‘three-quarter face’ was replaced by the ‘profile’ that depicted the sitter’s
head and feet from the side, with the shoulders and the body represented at
an angle with a certain effect of foreshortening. A great deal of skill can also
be seen in the drawing of the hands. Whether the subject is shown grasping
a sword, toying with a flower or a piece of jewellery, or merely with one
hand placed over the other, the artist was able to put into the depiction a
certain distinguishing quality. Another outstanding feature of these portraits
is the colour, for which the artist depended mainly on the richness of the
costume and the head-dress. The figure stands stiffly in the centre, posed on
a small garden plot or a green sward which occupies the lower part of the
miniature. A few flowering plants are sometimes introduced with the
intention of breaking the formality of the composition, but the contrast of a
simple background with a richly appareled figure was evidently the
underlying idea.

Mughal ‘group portraiture’ or ‘Jharoka-image’ developed out of the practice

of the ‘Jharokha Darshan’ that was started during the reign of Akbar. Koch
traces the origins of this imagery to Akbar’s time, when paintings had small
figures moving about in uncoordinated perspective sphere. The
compositional formula of ‘jharoka-paintings’ are similar - the Emperor is in a
central position on a raised seat projecting from a gallery in the back wall of
the audience hall sheltered by the cupola; assembled below him are the
nobles in two groups facing each other. Importantly, actual architecture of
the palaces of the cities of Agra and Lahore was used for the basic scheme,
with only minor variations. Under the reign of Jahangir, this basic tradition
continued, though great emphasis were laid on the realistic representations,
in which most scenes depicted private durbars showing the emperor
surrounded by several nobles. Moreover, a pure form profile was now used
to depict Jahangir and his courtiers.
However, it has often been said that paintings under Jahangir had gone
beyond the limits of depicting court life and the nobility. Thus, the portraits
and even paintings began to depict the life of ordinary people such as
ascetics, professionals and artisans along with the forces of nature. Thus,
while portraiture flourished during this period the paintings of Janhangir’s
atelier were much more varied thematically as compared to Akbar.

Although, manuscript illustration had existed in the past as well, it was used
merely as a decorative art in which the illustrations do not essentially
respond to the text. The art of book painting as practiced by the Mughals was
different in nature and was described as “narrative art” by Som Prakash
Verma. Under the Mughals, the thematic variations of the illustration began
to closely conform to the text and were done in order to increase the appeal
of the text.

Illustrations of books and manuscripts produced under Akbar were

profusely embellished with illustrations and supplied with beautiful
bindings. Books came in two sizes - large volumes with many illustrations,
i.e., official volumes or state documents that impressed with size and
richness of materials; and small books meant for “private delectation”, which
contain the finest illustrations. All these books were highly valued by the
Mughals. They were regarded as tangible evidence of wealth, refinement and
power, and were frequently used as ceremonial gifts and taken as spoils of
war. The earliest examples of book illustration that combined traditions of
the Safavid and Timur with the existing Indian traditions from Ajanta are
provided by the illustrations of the Tutinama (1565-70), the Anwar-i-Suhaili
(1570), and the Hamzanama. During the 1580s, history seems to have
dominated the mind of Akbar due to which he took up the illustration of
works like the Baburnama, Mahabharata, Timurnama and Ramayana.
Concern for physical veracity replaces the formal and narrative intensity in
Mughal art. Much of the painting shows a restless energy; figures are shown
in hurried movement and the compositions are crowded. Daswanth,
Basawan and Lal were the chief painters of the court during this time. During
the 1590s, Iran and Europe had become the benchmark to judge these
paintings. Illustrations acquired heightened naturalistic effects and
sophistication with subtle colour transitions, detailed representation of
architecture or textiles with use of rich, varied and expensive pigments, and
depiction of volume and mass. The works of this period included the Divan
of Anvari (1588); the Baharistan (1595); the Khamsa of Nizami (1595); the
Khamsa of Amir Khusrau Dehlavi (1597-98); and an Anvar-i Suhayli (1596-
97). These luxurious manuscripts, most of them Persian poetical anthologies,
were made from the finest papers and illustrated with expensive pigments.
Each illustration was usually the responsibility of one painter, rather than a
team of artists. A central control over workshop production is, however,
evident, as styles remained consistent in the manuscripts. In fact, so
controlled is the atelier’s production that even the large historical
manuscripts produced by joint effort - the second Akbarnama (1597-98), the
Chingiznama (1596), and several Baburnamas (ca. 1590, 1593, 1597-1598) -
adhere to certain minimum standards.

It had been possible for Akbar to produce such a large volume of

manuscripts because his workshop was organized like a modern factory.
Paintings and illustrations were usually a joint effort: a master sketched the
composition, a second artist applied the colours and sometime a third artist,
who specialized in portraits painted the faces. The quantity of pictures and
manuscripts made by this assembly-line process was staggering, but the
aesthetic quality was often uneven, and at time pedestrian. This was due to
the fact that the special talent of an artist could not have full play if one of his
collaborators was less skilled. For instance, an artist, who specialized in
colouring to subordinate his characteristic style to that of that of his
principal collaborator, who did the sketching.

Book illustration had flourished even during the reign of Jahangir. But unlike
Akbar he did not favour nor did he commission large manuscripts that
required armies of artists. He preferred small, elegant books with fewer and
finer illustrations, each one being the work of a single artist. Poetic and
historical texts were prepared for Jahangir but he favoured individual
paintings depicting what by now were standard Mughal themes: the
pleasures and pastimes of court life; portraits, studies of birds, animals and
flowers, scenes derived from European pictorial sources. The artists
produced highly finished studies of general character types, the beauty
likened to that of a ‘sitter’ than the divine through an accompanying verse.
Interplay of human personalities and their uniqueness / individualities are
concentrated upon, i.e. it becomes exclusively an art of portraiture. Pictures-
Iranian/Turkish paintings, Deccani illustrations, European paintings, Mughal
copies, Mughal original works- were collected into albums called ‘muraqqas’.
In these, two facing pages of calligraphy were followed by two related
illustrations, and the elaborate marginal decoration was continuous over
both folios of the open volume. To relate disparate illustrations placed on
one page, a background was added to relate them visually. Border designs of
calligraphies are generally figural while those around illustrations have
floral or arabesque illuminations. The ‘border-portraits’ sometimes
competed with the central panel for the viewer’s attention. The pictures
show the development of certain individualistic artistic styles: Mansur as
animal/flower painter, Abu’l Hasan & Bishan Das as imperial portraitists,
Govardhan as painter of holy men etc. Certain individualized portraitures of
women come up, especially the portrait of Nur Jahan with a rifle. The
Jahangirnama contains no scenes of action showing the Emperor in full
control of an already established power with most of the scenes concerned
with establishing his own spiritual and religious credentials.

Closely linked to manuscript illustration was ‘margin-painting’ that reached

its zenith during the reign of Jahangir. Under this school of art, in broad
margins besides naturalistic flower-plant motifs, amid landscapes, floral
scrolls or arabesques, hunting scenes, depiction of various crafts and
occupations, the portraits of Emperors, nobles, saints, artisans, painters etc
were favoured. According to Percy Brown and Lubor Hajeck, ‘margin-
painting’ is the finest achievement of the Mughal art in the 17 th century,
unequalled in any branch of the oriental graphic art.

An important development during the reign of Jahangir was the

specialization of painters. This was due to the encouragement that the
Emperor gave to his artists to develop their own particular talents. For e.g.
Abul Hasan concentrated upon court scenes and official portraits; Mansur
did natural history subjects, Daulat created portraits and so on. Artistic
individuality was definitely stimulated by a studio environment that was less
rigidly organized than it had been under Akbar. Thus, as seen from above
portraiture and margin-painting had emerged as distinct branches of art. In
portrait painting itself, there was room for still further specialization in
human portraits or bird and animal drawings.

As a result, during the period of his reign Jahangir’s painters focused upon
realizing their own distinct vision of the imperial Mughal style. The Jahangiri
style came to be characterized by a combination of highly analytical realism
and exceptional technical virtuosity. The intensely realistic style was capable
of revealing not only the outer appearance of physical reality but also its
unique inner spirit. One of the finest examples of paintings from the reign of
Jahangir, which clearly shows this new realism was the formal court
painting- ‘The Emperor Weighs Prince Khurram’. The fabric patterns, the
rugs, porcelains and the entire depiction of the complex event is dealt with
in a highly precise manner. However, it was the depiction of the Emperor
and prince Khurram, which catches the attention of a viewer immediately.
The commitment of this new style of realism can be seen very clearly in the
depiction of flowers, animals and birds during the reign of Jahangir. ‘A
Chameleon’ attributed to Mansur demonstrates how his studio used drawing
and paintings to capture the appearance of even the ugliest creatures in the
phenomenal world, the reality of which were fully accepted.

It was during the last years of Jahangir’s reign that he began to patronize
allegorical paintings with a political and adulatory slant. This was due to the
fact that it was during this period that his addiction to wine and opium had
worsened and he became increasingly isolated from the court. A fine
example of this type of painting was “Jahangir embracing Shah Abbas”. This
painting showed the mighty Mughal Emperor standing on a globe and
embracing a submissive Shah of Iran. Such allegorical portraits support
dynastic claims and promote the inviolability of the Emperor. They were
based on Western models. This trend had developed after 1615 and Jahangir
was shown as a majestic figure isolated with symbols of wealth and power
and were meant to depict the increasingly sacral character of the Mughal
Emperor. However, such a conscious use of painting for political ends would
come to dominate the Mughal atelier only during the reign of Shahjahan.

European influences played a very significant role in the development of

Mughal art. Akbar was the first Indian potentate to show interest in
European art and whom, as Koch believes, the Jesuits of the first Mission in
1580 presented with a set of the ‘Antwerp Polygot Bible’, which initiated
intensive dialogue between Mughal and European Art. Brown believes that
Mughal painters, who had not seen the sea before, to depict scenes of
shipping, probably used Flemish paintings as ‘guides’. Certain religious
elements were Islamic in origin like the saints with halos, or the angels with
wings etc even though copies & imitations of Christian paintings abound.
Secularist paintings also come about towards the end of the 16 th century.
European pictures became fashionable at the Mughal court adorning its
various walls and pavilions, and soon European artists followed suit. Under
Akbar, encouragement was provided to the European artists, the court
artists to copy European works and to adapt individual motifs into
individual composition. Among the European devices employed were far-off
townscapes, figures diminishing in size with distance and use of fabric to
define physical volumes.

It was during the reign of Jahangir that the European influence on paintings
was the most profound. After 1615 when the English embassy arrived many
secular pictures made their appearance in the court. In 1619, a European
made the Emperor’s throne in gold & silver. Portraiture assumed
importance- the use of the golden nimbus was restricted only for the
emperor, who believed in the divinity of the kings as distinguished from
others. Most western forms/ expressions were transformed or Indianized.
Animal symbolism & complex symbolic representations were skillfully
adapted by Mughal artists with the goats & oxen (inspired from the “Peace of
Animals” on title page of the Bible) as favourite symbols for peace
guaranteed by the just rule of the Mogul. Under the new iconographic
traditions, the emperor was represented in “company of Christian pictures”
in two main ways: as rendering of a real scene (e.g. Jahangir in durbar with
picture of Virgin above his head); and where both the emperor and the
sacred person are depicted in same level of reality (e.g. Jahangir & Christ
appearing in respective windows of same building). In the next stage, the
emperor was represented like the subject of the sacred pictures, borne out
probably by the emperor’s desire to be legitimized as a ruler of the two
worlds- the visible and the spiritual. Thus, the pictures came to be seen as
vehicles to represent the reality and glory of their own dynasty and rule, and
not an adherence to the religion of Christ.
A clear European influence was the depiction of angels, birds and stars in
wall paintings, like those in the Lahore fort especially in the “Kala burj vault”.
These soon replaced the Iranian-Mughal angel or pari figure in traditional
programmes. Thus, while European forms undergo Mughalization, Mughal
forms are realized with European stylistic techniques. Several
interpretations abound on the question of the purpose of the use of these
angels- to depict the emperor’s dwelling as a “heavenly palace”; as symbols
of “victory & power” or as expression of ruler-ship in search of the blessing
of the angels or as those who protect & serve the ruler as comparison to the
legendary king Solomon who had a flying throne carried by angels and jinns.
Persian type traditional angels adorned the outer fort-wall to appeal to a
wider, conservative audience while in the interior, the European prototypes
found favour representing Jahangir’s personal taste as a self-proclaimed
connoisseur.
There were two main techniques of painting - the tempera and the ‘gouache’.
Once the subject of a picture was determined, its composition was drawn on
a sheet of burnished paper in black or ochre and covered with a thin priming
layer of white paint. This was followed by colouring (rang amezi), where the
parts requiring secondary or mixed colours were painted. After each layer of
paint was laid down, the back of the paper was rubbed with a stone to
smooth the pigments and impart an attractive sheen to the surface. This was
followed by additional refinements - outlines were carefully reinforced,
minute details were added, pictorial elements were modeled to give them
volume and depth, and gold and silver were applied in appropriate areas.
Finally polished agate was applied on the reverse of the painting. Certain
variations in the technique included a direct execution of the painting on
paper without the first white priming, or the encrusting of real seed pearls
and flakes of precious stones (the ‘garah’ style), or the ‘abina’ style, where
water was used without addition of colour. Mounting and border-designing
was done by separate experts.

Most materials for the miniatures were hand-produced. Earlier painters

imported paper from Persia, till a factory was established at Sialkot in
Punjab producing ‘Sialkoti’ paper. Pieces of paper needed to be joined
together to form a suitable size for painting. Among the other products used
to make paper are bamboo, jute, cotton and flax. Silk and vellum were not
used as it could hurt the Muslim and Hindu sentiments respectively.
Different coloured pigments prepared from mineral and vegetable sources
were applied with animal–hair brushes. The two pigments of ‘siyahi’ and
‘mustaf’i roshnai’ were used for painting and writing respectively.

Thus, to conclude one can see that the Mughal school of art flourished during
the reigns of Akbar and Jahangir. Both Emperors took a personal interest in
art from the beginning and thus, extended great deal of support to artists in
their ateliers. New branches of art like the miniature art, portraiture, book
illustration and margin-painting had emerged under their patronage.
Moreover, it was Jahangir’s reign that witnessed the beginning of
specialization among the artists and the use of paintings for political
purposes. Such trends also continued during the reign of Shahjahan but the
Mughal school of art underwent a steady decay during the reign of
Aurangzeb as the Emperor showed no interest in promoting paintings.