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Mughal Art in India can be broadly divided into 4 phases. The Mughals - descendants of Timur and Genghiz Khan felt strong cultural ties to the Persian world. So they had imported the strong elements of the Persian paintings into Indian culture. Thus the first phase of the Mughal Miniatures in India, which started during the rule of the first Mughal Emperor Babur, had strong resemblance with the Persian miniatures.
The first three of these were those of the proper Mughal art i.e. the art created at the official atelier of Mughal court by its court artists under direction and supervision of the Mughal emperors themselves, the fourth phase being that of the Subai (provincial) Mughal art. The reigns of three of the great Mughals, Akbar, Jahangir and Shahjahan, define the first three phases of Mughal art. Akbar initiated the art of painting at Mughal court by setting up, or expanding a prior royal atelier and employing in it over a hundred best skilled painters.
Painters and Calligraphers Working in the Royal Atelier. This is an Illustration from the Akhlaq-iNasiri of Nasir ud-Din Tusi. Circa 1590 – 1595
(Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan Collection)
The main source of knowing about the Mughal Miniatures is the books and chronicles prepared by court artists from the reigns of each Mughal Emperor. The Baburnama is an autobiographical writing by Emperor Babur, decorated with illustrations painted by a team of miniature artists. The Akbarnama depicting the deeds of Emperor Akbar. Jahangirnama, is the autobiography of Mughal Emperor Jahangir who went a step further and besides the history of his reign, he includes details like his reflections on art, politics, and also information about his family.
Illustrating classics of both Indian and Persian origins and Hindu and Islamic traditions was the prime thrust of Akbar's art. Jahangir added to it nature study, art of portrayal, especially the female portraits and the stylistic sophistication. Shahjahan loved renditions of individualized things. Lavish embellishment, courtly grandeur and a little over-sophistication marked the art of his era.
The fourth phase of miniature art in medieval India can be called as a parallel phase, too as it ran with the time of these three Emperors. During this time, the art of miniature painting had percolated to the other parts of India, too. The Rajput kings were fond of paintings and they had also sponsored some of the miniature artists. The works done by these painters are known as ‘Rajput Style’ or ‘Rajasthan Style’ of Miniature Paintings, as it was mainly practiced in the state of Rajasthan in India.
The Subai Mughal art defines the deteriorating phase of both, Mughal art style and Mughal power. After the Mughal power weakened, Mughals' Subai heads proclaimed independence. They, however, continued with Mughalia life-style including Mughals' sophistication and their art style of miniature painting. The taste was, however, replaced by mannerism, sophistication by too much of ornamentation and the real spirit by crude sensuousness. Thus, different from the proper Mughal art style the Subai, or Provincial Mughal art is Mughal only in its poor stylistic adherence.
Each of the phases had its own thrust, preferences and options, themes and, to some extent, stylistic features.
To Akbar, a miniature was a book inscribed in lines and colors. To Jahangir, a painting manifested the aestheticism inherent in a man. To Shahjahan, it was a mirror palace and there he was in every glass-piece.
To the provincial Nawabs, a painting was as sensuous a thing as was a nautch-girl.
The Mughal art is the mirror wherein one discovers not so much the Mughal world as the world of Mughal days, the world of nature, the world of commercial activities, the world of social courtesies, merriment, pastime, warfare and what not.
Written histories do not reveal the colors of a bird's feathers but a Mughal miniature does. It reveals not only Babur's intrinsic strength but also the sportive frisking of squirrels and the romance of a peacock couple
Squirrels, a Peacock and a Pea-Hen, Sarua Cranes and Fishes
by Artist Bhawani, circa 1598
(National Museum, New Delhi).
The artist of this painting, Bhawani, excelled in painting birds and animals. In the upper-half can be seen squirrels playing in a tree. In the middle, a peacock and peahen are shown, below a pair of sarus cranes, and in the pond a pair of fishes. It is one of the best paintings of birds and animals in the Babur Nama.
Chroniclers record that Babur, while on his way to Kabul to suppress a mutiny there, spent with his nobles and animals a freezing winter night in forest under open sky.
The miniaturist depicts the frozen bodies of Babur and his companions wrapped in woolens, carefully protected horses, fearful face of the sky, the darkness of night with screaming jackals piercing it ominously, Babur's confidence and the colors of burning hearth.
A folio depicting the battle of Panipat in Baburnama records more minutely each and every detail of the action - Babur's strategy of dividing his forces into different sections and launching in simultaneity the offensive from all directions baffling the larger army of Ibrahim Lodi, use of a large range of canons besides the conventional arms like bows and arrows, swords, spears, lances and the kind of armor used by Babur and his soldiers, Babur's versatile leadership, his zeal, the hilly terrain and so on.
The Battle of Panipat (Illustration from the Baburnama), circa 1598
(National Museum, New Delhi).
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