Painting during Mughal Period

Painting during Mughal Period

Mughal Painting

The art of painting had not been encouraged by the Muslim rulers of the pre-Mughal period. It was revived by the Mughal rulers. The forefathers of the Mughals were lovers of painting. Babur inherited love for painting from his ancestors. He was a great lover of beauty. He delighted in flowers, running streams and building springs. Humayun developed a taste for painting when he was in exile in Persia. He did not live long to patronize that art.

But during the reign of Akbar painting made a notable progress. The emperor was personally interested in the development of painting which was created during his reign. He invited painters from every part of India and even from outside. Abul Fazal writes in Ain-i-Akbari that the works of all painters were placed before the Emperor every week and he used to reward the painters. There were very few foreign painters in his court but the number of Hindu painters was quite large. Abdul Samad, Farrukh Beg, Jamshed, Daswant, Basawan, Sanwaldas, Tarachand, Jagannath, Lal, Mukand, Harivansh etc. were among the most famous painters of the time of Akbar.

Jahangir loved painting very much. He personally understood this art and he often boasted of his knowledge of painting. Sir Thomas Roe, who visited the Mughal court in the time of Jahangir, testifies to the fact that Jahangir was a great lover of painting. Jahangir writes in his autobiography, “As regards myself, my liking for painting and my practice in judging it have arrived at such a point that when any work is brought before me, either of a deceased artist or of those living, without the name being told to me I can say at the spur of the moment that it is the work of such and such a man. And if there be a painting containing many respective figures, I can tell as to which figure is painted by which painter. If certain persons have put in the eyes and eye brows of a face, I can perceive whose work the original face is, and who has painted the eyes and eyebrows.” Abul Hasan was the best painter and was styled Nadir-uz-Zaman. Other prominent painters were Mansur, Aga Raza, Muhammad Nadir, Muhammad Murad, Bishan Das, Manohar, Madhav, Tulsi and Goverdhan. Really, painting was at its climax in the reign of Jahangir.

After the death of Jahangir painting began to decline because Shahjahan was interested more in architecture than in painting. A few nobles, however, patronized painting but the art did not make any progress. Percy Brown seeing the paintings of the time of Shahjahan has remarked, “Under the succeeding rule of Shahjahan the Mughal school shows the first signs of deterioration.”

Painting declined during the reign of Aurangzeb as it was prohibited in the Quran. Being a follower of Sunni sect, he opposed it vehemently. No painter was provided imperial patronage during his reign. Not only this, he demolished the paintings in palaces of Bijapur and Golkunda and in order to destroy the paintings in the tomb of Akbar at Sikandra, he got them white-washed. But in spite of the opposition of the emperor, painting went on flourishing in various provinces and a large number of royal painters took refuge in Avadh, Hyderabad, Mysore and Bengal. All these painters were welcomed in the courts of Lucknow and Patna.

At the same time Rajput painting flourished in some of the provinces. It was not an original style of painting, so it was influenced by the Mughal style. However, some significant paintings were prepared at Mewar, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bundi etc. the subjects of Rajpur painting are the scenes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharat. There were also some paintings of coronation ceremony, marriage and other religious functions but in the beginning of 18^th century, a new style in painting known as Kangara style flourished. Art specialists have praised this new style very much.

Milan Tomic

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