Page 178 - Eye of the beholder

PORTRAIT OF YONG PRINCE OF JODHPUR ON HORSE SMOKING HUKKA WITH ATTENDANT 18TH CENTURY
This is a painting in which the portrait of the horse is more admirable than the Prince who is the main protagonist. In pre-colonial India, horses were used in wars, hunts and rituals. Horses were also the symbol of a ruler’s prestige. The mansabdar system during the Mughal rule primarily under Akbar had institutionalized the use of horses. Rajput nobles would be given military positions according to the number of horses they had in their cavalry. But it was in the 18th century when the importance of horses was established socially, culturally and politically. The Mughal Empire had started to decline, and number of regional kingdoms rose as the Maratha Empire. At the same time, European colonizers were making inroads into the country. And horses became an important part of all these conquests. As a result horses started showing up in paintings, manuals and even had their own portraits delineated.
The painting has the representation of a Prince riding a horse and smoking a hukka, which is carried by his attendant shown inconspicuously at the side with only his face and feet visible. The composition has a greater dominance of the horse than the royal prince riding it. The scale of the horse hence captures the imagination of the viewer unfailingly before it moves on to the rider. The handsome stallion has resonance to renaissance sculptor Donatello’s equestrian statue of Gattamelata in Padua, Italy. The stallion is in a joyous trot happily carrying his rider lightly. Rendered in brown hue it is very simply caparisoned with a saddle that has for the hand support the head of a parrot. The saddle cloth has the typical Rajasthan block printed design in its border, namely the Taranga or schematized wave pattern with floral motifs in the main body. Two strips of cloth are placed in front and back of the Prince as he sits on the saddle. It has a design of geometric wave pattern common to relief decoration in Rajput architecture and a ubiquity in Mughal architecture too. The mane of the horse is covered with a decorated cotton cloth and a similar wavy pattern; ending with fringes or tassels at the sides that are composed of circular ring pattern which is also worn by the Prince that goes around his neck and across the chest. The elegant plaited ropes on the stallion further enhance the decoration as it is placed on its body and ends in charming tassels. The lower part of the legs of the horse is delineated in light brown, with hooves painted grey.
The countenance of the prince has boldly defined features. Painted in profile, he has large and bulging eyes with heavy lids and long arched eye brows. The nose is equally prominent, though long but not sharp and rounded at the tip giving it a heavier appearance and prominent thick lips. His ears are equally big and adorned with gold and pearl baali. At the side of the ear is the long sideburns’, and his forehead has the horizontal Saivite mark with a red bindi in the centre. Crowning his head is an elaborate conical turban made from the printed cotton cloth; and tucked with a stylish elegant white feather threaded with red coloured precious stone that ends in two black tassels.
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