HA227: Indian Painting

19 September 2002

Painting under Akbar

1a: Quran page, 14^th century Mamluk Egypt

1b: detail of Vasanta Vilasa (Beauty of Spring), Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India), 1451,
painting on cloth, approx. 434 x 9”*

2a: Preparation of Food for the Sultan of Mandu (making “sharbat,”) from Nimat-nama *

(The Book of Delicacies of Nasir Shah), Mandu, Central India, 1500-1505

(approx. 9 x 5-1/2”)*

2b: Loraka mourns death of his beloved Canda, killed by snakebite, from the
Chandayana of Dau’ud, 1500-1550*

3a: The Court of Gayumars, from Shah Tahmasp’s (Iran) Book of Kings (Shah Nama),
ca.1522-25 (“Houghton Shah Nama”) attributed to Sultan Muhammad; 342 x 231 mm.*

3b: detail

4a Hushang slays the Black Div, from Shah Tahmasp’s Book of Kings (Shah Nama),
ca.1522-2; 321 x 231 mm.

4b: detail

5a: Map of north India in the 11^th-12^th c.

5b: Map of north India in the 15^th-16^th c.

6a: Map of early Mughal empire

6b: Babur marches from Kabul to Hindustan, Babur Nama, 1590*

7a: Meeting of the Boats, Hamza Nama, painting on cotton, approx. 24” high, ca. 1562-
1577*

7b: Badi Us Zaman fights with Iragh, Hamza Nama

8a: HOLD

8b: Akbar’s Expedition to the Eastern Provinces, from the Akbar Nama, ca.1597*

(Beach, fig.45)

9a: Muhammad Husain Mirza Taken Prisoner before Akbar, 1573, Akbar Nama,

ca. 1585-90

9b: BACK UP to 7b, Hamza Nama

10a: Akbar’s pilgrimage to Sheikh Salim Chishti for Jahangir's birth, Akbar Nama, ca.1590*

10b: Akbar’s return to Fatehpur Sikri, Akbar Nama, ca. 1590

11a: Fatehpur Sikri, Buland Darwaza, 1571

11b: Fatehpur Sikri, Shabistan-I-Iqbal, 1571

12a: Detail, carved pillar of Turkish Sultana’s house

12b: Detail, corner of Haram Sara

13a: Manohar, Portrait of Calligrapher Husayn Zarin Qalam and the painter Manohar,
1581

13b: Zain al Abidin, Hanuman Brings the Mountain of Healing Herbs, from Ramayana,
1580s

14a: Mushtiq Ram, Rama and Lakshman fight Demon Taraka, Ramayana, 1580s

14b: Miskin (attributed), Krishna lifts Mt. Govardhana, from Harivamsa, 1585*

15a: A brahmana and his son Medhavin discourse on the path to
salvation, Razm Nama
(Mahabharata/Book of Wars), 1598-9

15b: Daswanth (? attributed), Cow and Calf, ca. 1595?* (book says earlier) (Beach, fig.10)

16a: detail, cow

16b: detail, cow

17a: Basawan, Vizier asks for Life of Robber’s Son, from Gulistan of Sa’di, ca.1600*

17b: detail

18a: Basawan, drawing of Berry Pickers (see Beach, fig.31)

18b: detail

18a: HOLD

18b: detail

Mughal dynasty, from Central Asia (1526-1857)

-Babur, defeated Lodis in 1525

-Humayun (r.1530-56)

-Akbar (r.1556-1605)

-Jahangir (Salim, b.1569), (r.1605-1627)

-Shah Jahan (Khurram) (b.1592), (r.1627-1658)

General characteristics of early Indian art (Indus Valley, Bharhut, Sanchi, Ajanta, Alchi, etc.)

Ø Ancient Indian art, in general, not about the particulars of this life on earth—does not center on individuals, nor is there an interest in the afterlife (except in terms of bettering one’s place in the wheel of rebirth)

Ø Emphasis on symbolic, and not physically descriptive, nature of ideal body

Ø Significance and religious power expressed through augmentation of limbs, special marks on body (esp. head, face, hands, feet), specific and exact proportions designed to create the perfect body

Ø Bodily positioning draws from language of yoga and dance; gestures and postures codified for symbolic meaning

Ø Narrative art centers on early Buddhist stories, with symbolic elements freely borrowed from pre-Buddhist vocabulary

Ø Nature carries meaning redolent of auspiciousness; fullness, bounty, life, fertility

Ø Patronage of art brings merit to the donor

Ø Caves at Ajanta (and later at monastery in Alchi) created to emulate Buddhist paradises, populated with compassionate religious beings (bodhisattvas), multiple heavenly Buddhas and their paradises, parables of the Buddha’s former lives, and (at Alchi) images of royal donors paying tribute

Ø Entire painted environment created on walls and on bodies of Buddhas

Early Indian (pre-Mughal painting):

Ø Manuscript painting usually done on cloth or palm-leaf until introduction of paper early in the 11^th c., which changed format of manuscripts

Ø Religious and quasi-religious works main category

Ø Narrative easily recognizable, often accompanied with text

Ø Large areas of flat, bright color

Ø Compartmentalized, into narrative spaces

Ø Schematic architecture and landscape elements

Ø Landscape used to set scene, and also to echo emotional themes

Ø Stock, full-bodied figures outlined with prominent, wiry line

Ø Angular facial features, protruding leaf-shaped eyes, profile views

Ø Recognizable gestures and actions who act in easily recognizable ways

Islamic art and early Mughal art:

Ø Islamic art expressly does not render divinity in human form, focusing instead on the word of God

Ø Rich figural vocabulary found, however, in renderings of court and legendary histories

Ø Beautiful calligraphy major category of artistic invention

Ø Illuminated manuscript pages embellished with calligraphy, floral, geometric, and vegetal designs

Ø Nature used to allude to things of this world and a paradisical after-lifebeautifully treated/burnished paper pages; leather bindings; fine calligraphy; illuminations; illustrations , especially indebted to Persian Islamic prototypes.

Ø Early Mughal art under Akbar’s enthusiastic patronage embraces a variety of artistic influences: Persian, indigenous Indian, European

Ø New, expanded interest in naturalism and in chronicling the details of court life and history

Ø Individual artists come to the fore as important contributors to the painting atelier