Author: Vibhuti Pathak
Roll No. 18
Student (UG) B.A. hons. History at the Hindu College,
University of Delhi,
New Delhi.
Abstract:
This paper is an endeavour to explore development process that the miniature painting underwent during the regime of Akbar. The text begins as a historical survey and outlines the origins of the now widely popular Persian art from its Sassanid, Chinese as well as European roots. It goes on to describing the juncture at which the Persian merged with the Indian art style, and the metamorphosis was a Mughal mode of painting. However, it was not until the reign of Akbar that this style received the much needed attention, under whose patronisation the Mughal miniature embarked upon a journey of significant changes that granted its typical dominant features. This paper attempts to bring out these developments in Mughal art through an analysis and understanding of illustrations from the Akbarnama. It also lays down the structure of Mughal school of painting, which became highly organised and efficient under its patron. Besides, the status of women in the Mughal harem also finds its reflection in the miniature art that has been described, more or less, masculine. Overall, this paper brings into limelight the span of art under Akbar that indubitably donned the metaphor of the ‘golden era’ of narrative illustrations.
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Keywords: Akbarnama, Ain-i Akbari, miniature art, history, Persian, Indian, calligraphy
INTRODUCTION
“There are many that hate painting; but such men I dislike. It appears to me as if a painter had quite peculiar means of recognizing God; for a painter in sketching anything that has life, and in devising its limbs, one after the other, must come to feel that he cannot bestow individuality upon his work, and is thus forced to think of God, the Giver of life, and will thus increase in knowledge.” 1
Abu’l Fazl, in the aforementioned extract from the Akbarnama, illustrates the benign and patronising attitude that his ingenious master, Emperor Akbar, had towards the art of painting. The text also serves as a means of countering the indifference of the orthodox nobility and a section of Akbar’s followers, who ardently believed in conservative Islamic ideals and opposed the creation of paintings. Nevertheless, art developed in India as a beautiful amalgamation of cultures, and at the same time, acquired characteristics that were distinct to the Indian form of painting, now known as the miniature2 painting style of India. Under the patronage of Akbar, in particular, this form of art acquired significance in the Mughal court culture. Another intriguing aspect is the way it not only influenced the court of Akbar, but also, to a large extent, was impacted by it. Moreover, paintings, including those that illuminate the pages of the Akbarnama, serve as an excellent means of portraying the two-hundred years of Mughal rule in India.3
ORIGINS OF THE PERSIAN STYLE OF MINIATURE PAINTINGS
Percy Brown, in his book titled Indian Painting Under the Mughals, mentions that “Learning, and the arts especially, did not always grow naturally like a language, but developed very much on the lines of patronage.”4 Therefore, the genesis of the development of painting, both under the Persians and the Indians5, is attached to one ruling lineage or another.
Among the many beautiful arts that were practised in certain famous cities of Eastern Asia, few attained a higher state of refinement than that of book illustrating, during the period from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. Manuscripts, finely written, and lavishly illuminated, found great favour and patronage among the ruling princes who encouraged the production of such works of art. These manuscripts were often freely embellished with pictures illustrating the text, so that the brush of the painter was as much in demand as the pen of the writer. This art of illustration, which was distributed over a wide area6, has been generally described by modern European writers as ‘Persian painting’.
Persian painting has been resolved into several broad chronological divisions, the three most important being the Mongol, the Timurid, and the Safavid. Previous to the Mongol, and up to the middle of the thirteenth century, a style of painting was practiced in Mesopotamia which may be classed as Primitive. After the destruction of the Mesopotamian cities by Arabs and setting up new cities in their place, Abbasid Caliphs of Baghdad picked up threads of pictorial art having, of course, the vestiges of the destroyed Sassanid art, especially the representation of human and living forms. As Percy Brown puts it “The style of workmanship is crude and archaic, but the compositions are full of spirit and vigour, being graphic illustrations of the life and appearance of the people of the time.” One famous manuscript is Schefer’s Hariri, prepared in AD 1237, from the numerous illustrations of which it is possible to realize fully the character of the Arab or Primitive style. Interestingly, it also draws elements7 from the Byzantine art forms which are most plausibly introductions by Syrian Christian illuminators engaged by the Abbasids to work under their orders.8
Another cultural shift on the artistic grounds came with the emergence of new destructive power in Central Asia, the Mongols. China followed by the Caliphate Arab were among the first regions to face the appalling destruction and occupation by the tribal Mongol hordes. Although lacking a sense of artistic beauty, Mongols nevertheless began to look for aesthetic inspiration, employing Chinese painters and craftsmen, even carrying them away in the course of their triumphant progress9, to distant capitals to decorate their palaces and adorn their halls. It was at this juncture, that the Arabs which had been looking for inspiration from the West for so long, began to turn their eyes towards the East; and towards China in particular. The mingling of these styles gave the Arab paintings, its characteristic elements, which are classified as Persian art. Moreover, this metamorphosis is what is credited to have introduced the element of adding a calligraphic outline into the miniatures, a feat much exploited by the painters under the Mughals, in general, and Akbar, in particular.10
After over a hundred years, following the disintegration of Mongol Empire, began the next phase in the development of Persian art; further east this time. The central figure of this movement was the Amir Timur—Tamerlane—one of the most ruthless despots Asia has ever produced. But although an iconoclast, where religions other than his own were concerned, Timur was, in his capital at Samarqand, a great patron of learning and the arts. This appreciation of the intellectual talents of others, which compensates not a little for the immense destruction he brought about in other countries, especially in India, was not confined only to the founder of the dynasty. It was the family heritage of the Timurids, as several of his descendants brought even greater lustre to this great name by their marked interest in all forms of culture and refinement. And this tradition of 1375 to 1500 was carried by a scion of his house, the chivalrous Babur, to India, to produce two centuries later the art of the Mughals, an acquisition, rather inspiration, from the Safavids.11 The Safavids were the patrons of art, from the court of whom two renown painters Abdus Samad and Sayyad Ali accompanied Humayun to India.12 It was also the court of Safavids who patronised Bihzad, the living emblem of Persian art and one of the finest painters. So much so that Brown comments “What Raphael was to the art of Europe, Bihzad was to the art of Asia.”
FROM PERSIAN AND INDIAN TO THE MUGHAL
Throughout the reign of Humanyun (although only one year short after his return to India) and the early reign of young Akbar, it was Mir Sayyid Ali and Abdus Samad who illustrated the Mughal manuscripts. Although they drew inspiration from Persian art, Milo Cleveland Beach argues, their style was not truly Timurid. In this aspect, he draws a contrast between two paintings from Kulliyat-e Sa’adi which find mention in Abu’l Fazl’s Akbarnama. The first painting, titled Dara and His Herdsmen, is enriched with visual turbulence, profuse details, and rich rhythms, characteristic of a style that developed under Abdus Samad. The depiction of horses is also varying. It represents the Mughal equivalent of the Timurid style long held as an ideal at the imperial court. This is not Timurid. The other one, depicting Gulistan and Bustan, on the other hand, has more traces of the Timurid style, evident in its linear features.13
Interestingly, the painting with less Timurid-style features was signed by a painter La’al. This intriguing piece of information available to us points the direction of addition of Indian painting style to the Persian, or Timurid per se. As already known, Akbar’s court was embellished with many Rajputs and Indian local rulers. Therefore, the possibility of intervention or mixture of Indian, a combination of Buddhist and Hindu style,14 painting techniques with those of Persian is always there. Furthermore, the commission of Hindu artists in Akbar’s courts (many of whom illustrated the Akbarnama) galvanised this process.
A move, therefore, away from strict Persian conventions in the Akbarnama paintings, as well as in many other important illustrated texts written during Akbar’s reign including the Hamzanama15, can be understood as most of its illustrations do not find the names of the original Persian artists (i.e. Ali and Samad) and most of them being Hindus. According to Beach, the overall style of the illustrations that followed was far more inventive than the works known of either master. It is notable that they are in style closer to the Indian tradition than the Persian. Here, the characteristic treatment of the picture space, with an arrangement of plane behind plane, subsidiary scenes set in the background, is fundamentally Indian and not Persian. In the numerous folios of the Akbarnama, the treatment of trees is in the characteristic Indian style with foliage painted against a dark background representative of the Rajasthani school. Moreover, the luxuriant depiction of foliage and brilliant blossoms are derivations from the Deccan painting. Smith also believes that the representation of flowers and foliage is ‘un-Persian’ and wholly Indian 16. It should be noted, however, that an extraordinary vigour of action and violent movement seen in several illustrations of the Akbarnama (which will be discussed in detail with case studies later in the paper) is altogether absent in the pre Mughal art of the book in India and also in the art of Persia. It was a new element and brought originality to the Mughal painter’s work and also marked the emergence of a new style, that is, the Mughal.17
TRAITS OF THE MUGHAL STYLE UNDER AKBAR
In Mughal work we find an emphasis on the psychological situation depicted through subtle and accurate presentation of the expressions of the characters, making the individuals depicted important and meaningful. Mention may be made of the historical narratives of the Akbarnama (also the Jamiut Tawarikh, the Tarikh-i Khandan-i Timuria) where visual narrations appear with greater complexity in composition and are more elaborate in episodic detail. These undoubtedly represent an improvement on the Persian modes of narrative art.
In the Persian style of art, the problem of portraying a complete scene is met by composing figures in groups on different planes (as evident from the Gulistan and Bustan painting from the Kulliyat-i Sa’adi). The Mughal artist improves on this narrative mode through a zigzag placement of small units in a single visual field, which suggests movement and also enhances the depth of the picture.18“Thus, the painter is able to make full use of these visual elements and negative space to create rhythm. This effect is further enhanced through a variety of gestures and activity created with human and animal figures, and also by setting the objects diagonally, which is well suited to action-filled narratives.”19 One of the best portrayal of these stylistic additions and enhancements is visible in an illustration from the Akbarnama, titled Akbar’s Triumphant Entry into Surat by Farrukh Beg. The zigzag plane used to create more space, the motion added to the animals using the same technique, and the hand gestures and body placement of the audience as well as the members of the royal procession are suggestive of activity well represented in the painting.
A complicated mode developed by the Mughals was the ‘narrative network’.20 In this mode, the paintings (usually two in number) are placed side to side on pages and the figure of the protagonist is repeated from scene to scene. The paintings covered the scenes from the same event with a specific period of time between them. A befitting instance of this is also found in the Akbarnama, where the double-page miniature designed by Miskin (and painted by Paras) depicts Akbar, the central character, on both pages of the illustration. This illustration titled Akbar hunting with a circle of beaters, punishes Hamid Bakkari21 shows fencing of wooden logs and branches, etc. circling the hunting ground, and the tent pitched for the royal harem at the centre of the hunting ground become complete when both the folios are put together. However, interestingly, in both these folios Akbar appears in different sets of costumes, and his horse too is changed. Akbar’s mode of hunting also changes from a bow and arrow to a sword. It was common for an artist to incorporate these changes to project the long duration of the event. This particular hunt, for example, lasted for five days during which time Akbar hunted with a bow and arrows, a sword, a lance, and a handgun.
Despite implementing a variety of techniques, a Mughal illustrator, however, always adhered to the text. This composition is reflected in Abu’l Fazl’s writings as:
“One of the wonderful occurences that took place during the hunting was that Hamid Bakari (of Bhakar) one of the yesawals had become evil-minded and had placed an arrow on his bow and discharged it against one of the servants of the Court. The latter abided his time and reported the matter to H.M. in the hunting ground. The royal wrath ordered that he should be… punished and… On this account… his head was shaved and he was mounted on an ass and taken round the hunting-ground.”22
Such a style of narration was somewhat adopted from the fifteenth-sixteenth century Persian narrative art, where the trend was generally to break up a visual field into two or more units. But these units remained isolated in the absence of any effort on the part of the artist to show any form of association between them. As a result, continuity in the narration suffered. Mughal artists rectified this shortcoming and succeeded in connecting the units through narrative network where elements portrayed rhythmic movements, gestures, and facial expressions. This not only generated a link between illustrations but also promoted ‘naturalism’ in the art. Karl Jamshed Khandalavala, an Indian Parsi art connoisseur, goes on to the extent of saying that “this introduced in their work a freedom, boldness, and vigour that the Persian painters had never been able to achieve.”23
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The zigzag style and diagonal setting of objects also particularly suited the narratives that were action packed. Walter M. Spink and Deborah Levine observe that the visual narratives, largely characterized by the violent physical action and excitement of the Akbarnama, demonstrate that artists believed diagonal emphasis to be more vital than vertical or horizontal ones. Their remark on the narrative ‘Bullocks dragging siege-gun during attack on Ranthambore’ is worth quoting.
“The diagonal pull of the thundering elephants seems about to topple the composition, as it threatens to upset the flimsy pontoon bridge. The fleeing Ran Bagh even crosses the picture frame to give further tension to the whole. We find this bold diagonal axis repeated in other illustrations from the Akbarnama. It appears to have been a favourite compositional device.
In this scene, one of the two illustrations on facing pages from the Victoria and Albert manuscript, the adjoining ascent is dramatically depicted. The artist Miskin has employed two bold diagonal axes, one jutting off at a sharp angle from the other, which conveys brilliantly the sense of a precipitous and rocky terrain, and the strain on men and bullocks as they force their way foot by foot up the almost vertical path. ... This painting is certainly one of the most powerfully conceived and executed in the entire Akbarnama manuscript.”24
Illustrations like these, showing battle scenes, hunting grounds, royal processions, court scenes, among others, also trace a clear departure from the pre-Mughal Indian miniature art, wherein didactic function of the illustrations was more prevalent25 and incorporation of the illustrations seems merely decorative and simply serves as a vehicle to enhance the appeal of th text. At the Mughal atelier,26 artist always seems particular about the accuracy and truthful depiction of the objects relating to the descriptive details of an event.27 Furthermore, The Mughal narratives on religious subjects were never the exclusive subject of adoration, as in classical Indian art and in the Rajasthani School of painting.
Another striking dissimilarity is the manner in which women were depicted in the Mughal miniature art. In illustrations of scenes of birth or marriage of a prince seen in Akbarnama manuscripts, the faces of the women appear to be standardized rather than individualized. In all paintings, their faces fall into either of the following two categories. One in full profile, which was a derivation from the Indian chaurapanchashikha style, characterized by large fish-shaped eyes, broad cheeks, a distinct chin, and large ear ornaments. The other type, inspired by the Iranian tradition, shows an oval or round face in three-quarter view. These types could serve at best to distinguish Indian and Iranian characters in Mughal manuscript illustrations. Perhaps, the most acceptable reason that can be attributed to this idealisation of female face in paintings rather than real-life portraits, is the fact that the Mughal harem always remained veiled.
WHAT DO THE PAINTINGS SPEAK OF?
As already discussed, paintings forming the illuminations of the pages of Akbarnama, and other manuscripts produced during the reign of the Emperor Jalaluddin Akbar, bear constant attachment with the naturalistic portrayal or scenes or events. These scenes of descriptions of the textual matter can be used to extract information on the practices of the Emperor and his nobles, which are otherwise not directly mentioned. In this paper I have taken into account a painting earlier referred to, i.e. Akbar hunting with a circle of beaters, punishes Hamid Bakkari by Miskin, for bringing out this understanding of the Mughal art.
The first painting Sarwan and Mansur have collaborated with Miskin and are responsible for the work of ‘colouring’ (amal) only. Here, though the composition appears crowded with clusters of animal figures, each is drawn with utmost care and modelling achieved with delicate shading of soft tones and thin colour washes. Each separate species is distinguished by well-defined features and minute details. In them, the expression of ferocity, fear, and bodily tension can be said to have been most effectively delineated through a fine coordination between the drawing and colouring. These are the visible feature of the painting. However, the illustration is also implicit of the type of hunt that was organised by Akbar.
This type of hunting is a derivation of the qamargah hunt, whose origins can be traced from the Mongols. In this traditional Asian hunting practice, thousands of beaters drove the prey into enclosures of fence or nets forming a stockade, wherein they became a source of gleeful schadenfreude of the hunting party and represented the “warrior aspect”28 of the Emperor. As the royal echelons, however, began to part ways with their nomadic ancestry, they adopted more tactful ways of satiating their desire for hunting. In this painting, as one can observe, the hunting ground is covered by wooden fence within which the Emperor can be seen hunting various prey animals, including antelopes, deer and nilgai. There are also visibly his attendants who can be see carrying around carcasses of animals and skinning them. The viewer can also notice cheetahs attacking the prey in the encircled area within the fence.
Two sets of interests of the Mughal Emperor can be discerned from this. Firstly, Akbar was extremely enthusiastic about capturing, training and breeding cheetahs. He maintained a large number of the wild beasts under the royal menagerie, i.e. a collection of wild animals kept in captivity for exhibition and other purposes. A study from contemporary and near contemporary sources is helpful in testifying this statement. Jahangir, for instance, in his memoirs Jahangirnama records that Akbar in his menagerie maintained more than a thousand cheetahs at once. Mutamid Khan, a military general in the army of Jahangir, jotted down in Iqbalnama that Akbar during his entire reign captured 9,000 cheetahs.29 Secondly, a technique of hunting is conspicuous in this illustration. Akbar utilised the cheetahs trained in the royal menageries in his hunting expeditions. Apart from delivering a shock charge on the prey, the cheetahs were also used for keeping the prey within a confinement facilitating an easy hunting for the Emperor.
MUGHAL FINE ART AS A CRAFT
Abu’l Fazl in his Akbarnama, writes an account of painting under the Emperor with consummate flattery:
“Here the art flourishes, and many painters have obtained great reputation. Here most excellent painters are now to be found, and master-pieces, worthy of Bihzad, may be placed at the side of the wonderful works of the European painters who have attained world-wide fame. The minuteness in detail, the general finish, the boldness of execution, &c., now observed in pictures, are incomparable; even inanimate objects look as if they had life.”30
These remarks praising highly of the qualities of Akbar, although may sound exaggerated are not baseless. He laid the foundation of an organised and structured system of artists that produced paintings exhibiting fine techniques and skillset. On many of the illustrations in the manuscripts, there are inscriptions which are written with the object of identifying the pictures with the artists who are presumed to have painted them. From these it is possible to prepare a list of over a hundred artists who worked in the school organized by Akbar.31 In the first place, they were added by the clerks or munshis, employed either at the court of Akbar or in the office of the imperial library. In most cases, the artists were Hindus, and so were not likely to be acquainted with the Persian script in which they are invariably written.32 A few exceptions occur, but they are rare.
There is also a complication that arises in identifying painters of an illustration in the Akbarnama or any other Mughal manuscript, especially those written during Akbar’s reign. The reason being that it was the custom for several painters to collaborate on one picture, hence, the rarity in finding any miniature which is entirely the work of one artist. This system seems to have been derived from Persia, where it is observable in a few pictures of the Safavid school; the Mughals elaborated the practice. In the majority of Akbari pictures only two artists have collaborated, one making the tarrah33 or sketch, and the other doing the aml, work, or painting. On occasion, however, there may also have been a third who did the chihra-numa or portraiture, and, very rarely, a fourth who supplied the surat or figure-drawing. In these circumstances it is easy to understand that the munshi who wrote the inscriptions was sometimes uncertain to whom the various parts of the work were to be assigned.
Such a system of production seems to suggest that the painting of Mughal pictures was more of a craft than a fine art, and that it was conducted in the following manner. The painters were assembled in a hall or workshop, and there, under a head man, each was employed in executing those parts of a picture with which he was most familiar. The actual composition, or ‘lay out ’, of the miniature would be sketched in by the chief artist, which, when approved would be passed from hand to hand, one artist drawing the figures, another painting the background, a third putting in the features, and so on, until each had completed the portion of the work allotted to him and the whole was finished. Percy Brown highlights the possibility that this organisation was not merely the result of coming together various artists coming together to ease their burden; but there is an almost certain probability that the patron (in our case, Akbar) laid out the plans for this system to obtain the finest of results.
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CONCLUSION
We have seen how from humbler but diverse lineages arose the Persian mode of painting, amidst the critical, and rather uncouth, judgement of painters and their works by Islamic jurists and the orthodox. In India, the Mughals refined the art that grew to great heights particularly from the impetus it received by Akbar. The Mughal Emperor established an organised structure into place wherein artists and painters combined Timurid style, mainly due to Akbar’s aspirations to trace his lineage from him, with the Indian style, which more unconscious due to the descent of most of his illuminators. Due to the inherent qualities of both the Persian and Indian modes, Mughal form of miniature characterised a masculine art with women neither finding natural depiction in paintings and portraits nor are there widely known works by contemporary female artists. As for the Akbarnama, its illustrations are immortalised for striking uniqueness through in their unambiguous naturalism, motion, boldness and inimitable narrative quality; a product of the generosity of the patron and equally, if not more, the hands of painter.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Fazl, Abu’l. Translated by H. Blochmann, 1873. A’in-i-Akbari, Calcutta. 2. Chakraverty, Anjan. 2006. Indian Miniature Painting. Delhi: Lustre Press. 3. What are Miniature Paintings. 2017. “What Are Miniature Paintings?” LiveAbout.
2017. https://www.liveabout.com/definition-of-miniature-painting-2577652. 4. Brown, Percy. 1981. Indian Painting under the Mughals, AD 1550 to AD 1750. India: Cosmo Publications. Pg. 31.
5. Verma, Som Prakash. 2005. Painting the Mughal Experience. New Delhi ; New York: Oxford University Press. Pg. 13.
6. Beach, Milo Cleveland and Smithsonian, Art. 1981. The Imperial Image : Paintings for the Mughal Court. Washington: Smithsonian Institution. 7. Beach, Milo Cleveland. 1987. Early Mughal Painting. Cambridge, Mass. U.A.: Harvard University Press.
8. Brown, W. Norman. 1930. “Miniature Painting in Western India.” Parnassus 2 (7): 34.
9. Smith, Vincent A. 1911. A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon from the Earliest Time to the Present Day. Oxford.
10. Verma, Som Prakash. 1978. Aligarh Muslim University. Department Of History. Centre Of Advanced Study. Art and Material Culture in the Paintings of Akbar’s Court. New Delhi: Vikas.
11. Sen, Geeti. 1984. Paintings from the Akbar Nama. Sigra, Varanasi Lustre Press. 12. Khandalavala, Karl. 1974. “The Mughal School and its Ramifications”, in The Development of Style in Indian Painting, Delhi.
13. Spink, Walter and Levine, Deborah. Akbarnama: Catalogue, New York. 14. Koch, Ebba. 1998. Dara-Shikoh Shooting Nilgais : Hunt and Landscape in Mughal Painting. Washington: Freer Gallery Of Art.
15. Beveridge, Henry and Rogers, Alexander. 1909. The Tūzuk-i-Jahāngīrī, or Memoirs of Jahāngīrī from the 1st to the 12th Year of His Reign... London: Royal Asiatic Society.
FOOT NOTES
1 Abu’l Fazl Allami, translated by H. Blochmann, 1873. A’in-i-Akbari, Calcutta. Pg. 114-5. From Chakraverty, Anjan. 2006. Indian Miniature Painting. Delhi: Lustre Press. Pg. 36
2 As the name suggests, miniature is a richly detailed and finely brushed style of painting, which is characterised usually by its small size. In traditional miniature paintings, however, it was not the size of the canvas (or surface) that mattered, but the intricacy of brushwork and fine details. Source: What are Miniature Paintings. 2017. “What Are Miniature Paintings?” LiveAbout. 2017. https://www.liveabout.com/definition-of-miniature-painting-2577652.
3 Brown, Percy. 1981. Indian Painting under the Mughals, AD 1550 to AD 1750. India: Cosmo Publications. Pg. 31.
4 Ibid. Pg. 33.
5 At this juncture, it must be noted that the miniature painting style visible in the pages of the Akbarnama and other Mughal works, was a culmination of the process of mixing of Persian art with that of its Indian counterparts, particularly Rajasthani and Rajput painting style. Som Prakash Verma. 2005. Painting the Mughal Experience. New Delhi ; New York: Oxford University Press. Pg. 13.
6 The main centres of production of paintings in Persia included the cities of Baghdad, Basrah, and Wasit in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Samarqand, Bukhara, and Herat in the fifteenth century, and Tabriz, Kazvin, Ispahan, and Shiraz in the sixteenth century. Brown, 1981.
7 These include the nimbus, the saintly vestments, columned porticoes, and many other accessories associated with the mosaics of the basilicas.
8 This can also be attributed to the communication established by called Tarim Basin, a city in Turkestan wherein passed a huge traffic from the orient connecting the Christian regions of the West. Brown, Percy. 1981. Indian Painting under the Mughals, AD 1550 to AD 1750. India: Cosmo Publications. Pg. 35-40.
9 One of the Mongol Khans, Hulagu, is said to have imported over a hundred families of Chinese artisans and craftsmen to his court in Persia to carry out his artistic schemes. Ibid.
10 More than that, it stimulated the drawing of the figure, and especially gave to it that rhythmic quality and flowing contour which it retained from this time onward throughout its course.
11 Brown, Percy. 1981. Indian Painting under the Mughals, AD 1550 to AD 1750. India: Cosmo Publications. P 40.
12 Milo Cleveland Beach, and Art Smithsonian. 1981. The Imperial Image : Paintings for the Mughal Court. Washington: Smithsonian Institution. Pg. 83.
13 Milo Cleveland Beach. 1987. Early Mughal Painting. Cambridge, Mass. U.A.: Harvard Univ. Press. Pg. 131.
14 Before the time of the miniature paintings in India of the Rajput and Mughal styles, which date from the late sixteenth century on, there have been found in that country only two styles of miniatures. One of these flourished in Nepal and northern Bengal, with dated specimens starting in the eleventh century the other in western India (Gujarat, Kathiawar, Rajputana), and is now known to have existed in the early twelfth century. These two schools of painting seem to have had no relationship with each other, except as they both derive from a common older Indian tradition. That of eastern India exists chiefly in Buddhist books; that of western India mainly in manuscripts of the Svetambara (“White-clothed”) division of the religious sect of the Jains, with a few highly interesting examples reported in secular and in Vaishnava Hindu texts. Source: Brown, W. Norman. 1930. “Miniature Painting in Western India.” Parnassus 2 (7): 34. Pg. 1.
15 The Hamzanama (Epic of Hamza) or Dastan-e-Amir Hamza (“Adventures of Amir Hamza”) narrates the legendary exploits of Amir Hamza, or Hamza ibn Abdul-Muttalib, an uncle of Muhammad. In the West, the work is best known for the enormous illustrated manuscript commissioned by Akbar in about 1562.
16 Smith, Vincent A. 1911. A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon from the Earliest Time to the Present Day. Oxford. Pg. 207.
17 Som Prakash Verma. 2005. Painting the Mughal Experience. New Delhi ; New York: Oxford University Press. Pg. 14-6.
18 Som Prakash Verma, and Aligarh Muslim University. Department Of History. Centre Of Advanced Study. 1978. Art and Material Culture in the Paintings of Akbar’s Court. New Delhi: Vikas. Pg. 12. 19 Som Prakash Verma. 2005. Painting the Mughal Experience. New Delhi ; New York: Oxford University Press. Pg. Pg. 43-5.
20 Sen, Geeti. 1984. Paintings from the Akbar Nama. Sigra, Varanasi Lustre Press.
21 In the same paintings, a culmination and combination of all the Mughal styles, so far discussed, can be seen clearly. From a keen emphasis being laid on episodic detail, and psychological connection amongst its various characters (both animals and humans), one can go on to observe the vast active plane represented in a zigzag by painter Miskin; all of which were novelties of the Mughal style of miniatures.
22 Abul Fazl, Akbarnama, translated by A. Beveridge, vol. I, Calcutta, 1972, pp. 417-18. 23 Khandalavala, Karl. 1974. “The Mughal School and its Ramifications”, in The Development of Style in Indian Painting, Delhi. Pg. 70.
24 Som Prakash Verma. 2005. Painting the Mughal Experience. New Delhi ; New York: Oxford University Press. Pg. Pg. 48. From Spink, Walter and Levine, Deborah. Akbarnama: Catalogue, New York. Pg. 7-8 and 21.
25 This can be seen in the illustrated manuscripts of the Western India school and also in the early Mughal Tutinama manuscript.
26 An atelier is a workshop where an artist carries out his/her functions.
27 Som Prakash Verma. 2005. Painting the Mughal Experience. New Delhi ; New York: Oxford University Press. Pg. Pg. 53.
28 Koch, Ebba. 1998. Dara-Shikoh Shooting Nilgais : Hunt and Landscape in Mughal Painting. Washington: Freer Gallery Of Art.
29 Beveridge, Henry and Rogers, Alexander. 1909. The Tūzuk-i-Jahāngīrī, or Memoirs of Jahāngīrī from the 1st to the 12th Year of His Reign... London: Royal Asiatic Society.
30 Brown, Percy. 1981. Indian Painting under the Mughals, AD 1550 to AD 1750. India: Cosmo Publications. Pg. 107.
31 Ibid.
32 It is, therefore, for this reason that a number of pictures bear frequent corrections in the artists’ names, and it is evident that the work of labelling was not carefully done. On many of the paintings the artists’ names have been wrongly written, and afterwards others substituted when the mistake was discovered.
33 The Persian word tarh or tarrah has a variety of meanings, but in this connexion it may be interpreted in two ways. In one it may mean ‘foundation’, in which case it seems to refer to the original sketch or design being the work of the artist mentioned. In the other it may be translated as ‘mode’ or ‘style’, when it may indicate that the picture is ‘in the style of’ or ‘after’ the artist named.
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