Jahangir Enthroned on an Hourglass

Jahangir Enthroned on an Hourglass 

a painting by Bichitr
from Jahangirnama
Jahangir period
17th century AD.

         Another painting of propaganda.  Not a political one, but a spiritual one. The Emperor sits on an hourglass where the sand of time and life flows by. He has four supplicants before him. Shaikh Husain of the Chishti shrine, the Ottoman Sultan, James I --the King of England, and the painter Bichitr himself. The Emperor ignores the last three. Instead he gives his Book of Life to Shaikh Husain. The Emperor takes refuge in Islam.
        This painting is interesting for many other reasons as well. It shows the growing interest in Western art and technology.  The portrait of James I is a copy of an English painting. The cherubs are also borrowed from western paintings.  The  idea of an hourglass is an English imported item. Further it is one of the few occasions in Indian art that we have a self-portrait of an artist. A rare thing indeed. The status of the artist has improved from being a mere artisan to being depicted with the Emperor himself. The artist is beginning to emerge in his own right.

Jahangir's Dream

Jahangir's Dream

a painting by Abu'l Hasan
from the Jahangirnama
Jahangir period
17th century AD.

        Jahangir is generally depicted as an opium edicted, alcoholic emperor, who lost control of his empire to his wife Nur Jahan. But there is another side to him--a patron of the artist, a guardian of his empire, a generous man, a propagandist politician, an eager naturalist, an emperor who expanded the Mughal empire.
       Qandahar was a bone of contention between the Mughals and the Shah of Persia. Both claimed the city to be theirs. Unable to persuade the Shah to leave the city in the Mughal hands, Jahangir had a dream where the Mughals squeeze the Persians out and push them back.
        This painting depicts the dream. The mighty Jahangir embraces the skinny Shah, the Mughal lion nudges the Persian sheep. The halo of the sun and the moon shine luminously behind Emperor Jahangir. The Persian Shah basks in the glory of the Mughal emperor.  This  is pure political propaganda. 
         Interestingly,  Abu'l Hasan has borrowed elements from western art, notably the cherubs,  and the map of the world. Cartography or map making was not well known in India at that time. This painting shows the fusion of the Islamic, the Hindu and the Western art tradition.  Globalisation had begun.

The Birth of a Prince

The Birth of a Prince 

a painting by Bishan Das
from Jahangirnama
Jahangir period
17th century AD.

        Jahangir was the fourth Mughal emperor. Like Babar, he too maintained a diary, known as Jahangirnama. Like the Babarnama and Akbarnama, the diary was also heavily illustrated.  Jahangir was a great patron of painters. His period (1605-1627)  has produced some of the best artists of India.
        Bishan Das was one of the finest painter of Jahangir's atelier.  He specialized in portrait painting.  In fact Jahangir records that he had sent Bishan Das to Iran in order to paint a portrait of Shah of Iran with whom he had friendly relations.
          Here Bishan Das paints Jahangir's birth. We get a peep into the Zannakhana or the ladies palace. The newly born child is being presented to the mother. The old grandmother sits in the chair. There are women and eunuchs gossiping and singing.  A eunuch group is clapping and singing. The gate of the palace is decorated with a string of flowers and closed with a curtain. A group of astrologers, sitting outside the palace,  are drawing up the horoscope of the prince. Men laden with trays of jewelles and clothes have arrived--possibly sent by Akbar himself at the arrival of Salim, the future Jahangir.
       These paintings conjure up the Mughal world for us. They  are important both as art pieces and as historical documents of an age bygone.