Page 203 - Eye of the beholder

Akbar who became the next emperor of Hindustan was a boy of fourteen and the transition for him was not smooth either. In the Second Battle of Panipat fought in 1556 against a Hindu ruler Hemu who had captured Delhi, Akbar was victorious against him, leading to the reestablishment of Mughal Empire in India under Akbar the Great. Akbar was phenomenal ruler and as a statesman, diplomat, a mystic and an intellectual with predilection towards music, painting, literary classics both Persian and Indian, mathematics, astrology, military strategy and others. It was under his tutelage that a painting atelier was set up in 1564, to carry out the illustration to the classic epic Hamza Nama, an adventurous and a dynamically daring bold uncle of the Prophet. He decided on this epic illustration after listening to the exploits and adventures in his spread of Islam. Hamza Nama therefore became the first magnum opus to be produced under Akbar’s patronage and comprised of 14 volumes each containing hundred folios, painted not on paper but on cloth which was 14” in length. The style was primarily Persian as the two Persian artists whose employment Humayun had sought were the heads of Akbar’s atelier in charge of planning and executing the entire classic. Indian artists - as many as one hundred and fifty were also employed in order to execute and carry out various tasks associated with such a monumental work as painters, calligraphers, gilders and binders. It was in the crucible of the Hamza Nama that the Mughal miniature style was born and established itself, bringing together three strains of cultural traditions namely Persian, Indian and Western European art.
It mandates to mention that Akbar’s miniature in its thematic subject were primarily manuscript illustration and documenting of the emperor’s life as construction of Fatehpur Sikri and Agra, his hunting exploits, court scenes and the royal portraits which he had them commissioned. His style and subject was largely dictated by his persona. Under Jahangir the approach to thematic content changes dramatically. He inherited his father’s full fledge atelier, but was not interested in maintaining the full strength of the artists. As Prince Salim he had already established his own atelier and when he inherited his father’s he down sized it to suit his specialized requirements. Jahangir did not manifest interest in manuscript illustrations; he had an unbounded curiosity with interest in the novel and different, exotic birds and animals as well as objects of art. Consequently his vision was different. More subjective than objective, patronizing allegorical and symbolic paintings, which aggrandized him as a world conqueror.
The Mughal miniature tradition continued under Shah Jahan and to an extent under Aurangzeb. After the death of the latter, the successors of these cultural giants were weaklings who hardly managed to hold on and rule. Among the various rulers who ruled Muhammad Shah II had an extensive rule of nearly thirty years from 1719 to 1748. The last ruler who sounded the death knell of the Mughal Empire was Bhadur Shah Zafar in 1857.
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