Something about the Mughal Painting

The Mughal School of Painting is taken as a style par excellence in the history of illustrated manuscripts within subcontinent. Two great patrons of art were the two gorgeous emperors, happened to be the father and son in relationship; Akbar the Great and Jahangir. Akbar considered artists as god-like figures who, through their creations, could embark on a stage where they could make others happy or sad. It is enough to understand that why the great King had managed to have Navratana (the nine jewels), a group of nine outstanding people comprised of geniuses of diverse art-forms, skills and branches of knowledge.

Tansen, Abu al-Fazal, Birbal, Faizy are well known figures of the group of nine other than those who are not much famous but are equal in status.  

The Mughals are considered to be “the torch bearer” of colossal architecture with ornate and floral motives, attributed to the basic concept of paradise with only sacred fauna and flora to be found there. Contrary to the rock-cut narrow style of architecture which, Hindus were obsessed with in erecting temples of monstrous height and abundance of figurative sculptures, in and around these sanctuaries; showing great level of devotion and fervor towards iconographic nature of religious doctrine, the Mughals introduced wide, fortified, ventilated and naturally illumine structures with special cooling system accomplished by virtue of water.  

The home-grown attitude of figurative representation, accredited to Hindus, was also voguish in painting in this part of the world. The Jains in compassionate relation with Tirthankaras, of which Mahavira was the last one, painted their figures in order to elaborate the religious texts like Kalpasutra. This sort of painting was famous in Gujaratand Karnataka, but the main issue was to publish the scripture as the intention was to elaborate the writings; pictures of religious figures were crafted at the border of the page which, with the passage of time strengthened its place at the center, after receiving popularity and acceptance from elites and commons. This tradition was later adopted by the Hindus in rendering of their pictorial scriptures like, Mahabharata, Ramayana, Gita Govinda and Bhagvatgita Purana. Other than religious librettos, some secular stories also got proper place in this illustrative convention, Ragmalas, royal love-stories and adventurous lives of travelers and knights were also in fashion by the time when the great Mughals occupied this terra firma.

The Mughals were already possessing, the ritual of recording sacred characters and events owing to the great Persian tradition of miniature painting which in Safvid period, got its zenith.  

The south Asians never stopped anyone to come to this land for taking it up and rule. The Aryans, Greeks, Persians, Muslims and Britons, all enjoyed the fertility of this soil that lately became their eternal shroud.

Babur, the first of the Mughals, entered from the western side and after defeating Ibrahim Lodhi, captured Delhi to make this area a crucible of diverse influences. In painting, already existing miniature tradition got blended with the influences, the Mughals brought with them from the rich lands of Persia. The dynasty was known for their liberal and secular approach especially during and after the regime of Akbar till Shahjahan. Akbar was a great admirer of indigenous music, dance, cuisine and costumes. He even honored a Rajput lady Jodha Bai as his queen, although this act had its unique place in history as diplomatic ploy by the great emperor. During the epoch of the Mughals ; Ragmalas, Mythologies and anecdotes of Rama and Sita and Krishna were painted in an approach which, was persuaded by the Persian style of painting, introduced to this part of the world by Bihzad and Abd al-Samad, two mammoth icons of the art of illustration who accompanied Humayun when he recaptured South Asia on his return from exile in Persia.

Other than indigenous stories, the royal patrons also commissioned the illustrations depicting their own court-life, battle scenes and hunt-expeditions.

Babur Nama, Akbar Nama, Tuzk-e Jahangiri and Padshanama are few of this series which were painted repeatedly. 

On the other hand, famous fables like Kalila-o Dimna and Anwar-e Sahili were also illustrated time and again in different periods; Hamza Nama, Tuti Nama, Razm Nama and Bustan-i Sa’di were also amongst the popular collection, commissioned by the dynasty.

Critically speaking, what the Mughals brought to the South Asia was not just the Persian influence, but there could be found traces of Chinese and Japanese technique and sway the Mughals were acquainted with.

These influences are obvious in Hamzanama, furnished under the Mughals, where one could find very colorful rendering of Dragons, an imaginary character of Chinese Mythology.  

The making of rocks in the back or foregrounds also reminds the Japanese style adopted years ago in their woodcuts. In addition to rocks, the depiction of whirling waves of river or sea also takes one back to those woodcuts which, even inspired Vincent Van Gogh at Netherlands, especially in his whirling-brush technique. 

The Mughals were successors of the Mongols; the Chinese influence could be ascribed to them as an indispensable disposition of their genetics. But the interesting thing was that the local schools of painting, that were on hype in Rajasthan and Gujarat got enriched by the Mughal style when the detail of the green flora and grass was put against the blazing reds of Gujarat and soothing blues of Rajasthan. Akbar, who was in close relations with the Rajputs of Vijaynagar, condescended this blend in order to promote his doctrine of secular ideology.

The Mughal court was rich and stable in terms of economic condition during Akbar’s era after acquiring most of the land, that was available to rule over, so the royal activity regarding music, dance, literature and painting was on full swing; an atelier including renowned painters and craftsmen was always found accompanying the emperor through thick and thin to perform artistic duties. That atelier worked as a team even on one painting, causing the reason that we could not find the name or signature of one artist on most of the paintings, what you may discover is only anonymity.

During the Mughal period, the aim of art, besides traditional and religious epics, was basically to record events of political, social and royal nature, therefore, the Mughal art was often called of photographic nature. The lavish royal life was to be portrayed and the already existing art of illustrative manuscripts suited this longing of the Persian blue blood of the Mughal Royals resulting into profusion at a large scale of that style of art. When Britons discovered the golden land of India, western style of painting was one of the effects, what they delivered at the Mughal court.  

The crucible got more enriched with court-scenes composed in triangular compositions with raised eye level. Although the cut-out and perspective techniques were already there in the aboriginal style but it was not as precise as the western world was, in their approach towards paining.  

So we could have a profound look into the tradition of Mughal Painting getting evolved from the early illustrated manuscripts, carrying the influence of the Persian Safvid tradition, to the modern techniques of composition, especially with reference to perspective and outlook, which allowed the Mughal painting to accomplish a native style by giving a picture of  the Indian flora and fauna like the Mango, Banyan, and Pipal trees and the portrayal of the black bear found only in Kashmir, pictures of birds, cows and monkeys rather than portraying blossoming plums, peaches and amber foliage of Persia.

Mansur, a distinguished painter of Jahangir’s court, put the art of illustrating animal, birds and flowers at cloud nine owing to his detailed and meticulous exposé of natural world, a rare, perhaps the first wildlife venture in the south Asia in terms of record and depiction of plant and animal kingdoms. 

No doubt that the Mughal painting style is seen absorbing local and far-off influences, but this phenomenon applies on each and every style around the globe and is considered as the essential part of any great evolution.

The Mughal painting is one example of alteration and evolution, especially in the field of illustrated manuscripts, this part of the world would be remembered for.