Shah Jahan

"Shah Jahan" 

by Abul Hassan.
Jahangir Period. 1617.

         Shah Jahan, the fifth Mughal emperor,  was the most tragic figure of the Mughal dynasty.  Known as Prince Khurram, he was the beloved grandson of Akbar. As a youngman he conquered both Mewar and Deccan for Jahangir. He was his most trusted son. He fell out with Nur Jahan, as he refused to marry her daughter and instead married Mumtaz Mahal, her niece. For three years he was chased all over the Mughal empire. He became the emperor, only to be imprisoned by his son Aurangzeb for seven long years. While confined in the Agra fort he wrote to Aurangzeb, "Better than you are the Hindus, they give water to even their dead. I am served water from a ditch in the palace." He died a lonely man.

           Portrait painting had become    the forte of many Mughal artiats for example Bachitra and Abul Hassan. This is the one of the finest portrait of Shah Jahan. It depicts him standing in a garden, holding a 'sarpech' -- an ornament for the turban. It could be symbolic that Shah Jahan is the jewel in the 'crown' (turban) of the Mughal dynasty.  Shah Jahan himself has written on this painting, " a good portrait of me in my twenty-fifth year." Shah Jahan is considered the handsomest of the six Mughal emperors.