Wonders of a Golden Age: Painting at the Court of the Great Mughals. PDF
Preview Wonders of a Golden Age: Painting at the Court of the Great Mughals.
A Jainesque Sultanate Shahnama B. N.Joswamy 1/ and the Context of pre-Mughal Painting in India Museum Rietberg Zurich 1988 ... Google Original from Digitized by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN . ./ ) . R1etber9 Series on Indian Art. No 2 Additional monographs appeaftn9 1n the R,etberg Series on Indian Art edited by Eberhard Fischer and Andrea Isler No I .. B N Goswamy and E Fischer. Wonders of a Golden Age - Pam1ing at the Court ol 1he Grea, Mughals. Zurich. 1987 ISBN-No 3-907070-14-3 No 3 Amina Okada. Versprochene Unsterbhchkel1 - 81ldmsse vom Hof der Moghul-Ka,ser des 17 Jahrhunderts aus dem Musee Gu,met 1n Paris. Zurich. 1988 ISBN-No 3-907070-21-6. No 4 Karuna Goswamy. The Glory ot 1he Groa1 Goddess - An 1llus1ra1ed manuscript hom Kashmir from the Alice Boner Collecuon m the Museum R1etberg Zurich. Zurich. 1989 ISBN-No 3-907070-23-2 0 Museum A,etberg ZUnch For 1Hustra1,ons: Owners of the works Cover design Fred Bauer. Kusnacht Lav-out I Wens1e,n ancf B Kammerer O,s1nbution Museum A,etberg Zurich Gablerstrasse 15 CH-8002 Zurich Sw,tzcrland ISBN-No 3 907070-22-4 Punted 1n Swnzedand Google Original from Digitized by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN f"'. Editors· note I ' : :_. . - I We thank the following institutions and private collectors for generously al lowing us to reproduce paintings from their collections: H.H. Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan 4 Alvin 0 . Bellak. Philadelphia 45: pl. 14 Private collection, Zurich 5, 23: pl.8 Museum fur lndische Kunst. Berlin 40, 47: pl. 6. pl, 12. pl. 13. pl. 16 The David Collection, Copenhagen 19,27,36: pl. 4, pl. 9 Mu see Gui met, Paris 34, 37; pl. 3,pl. 5 Museum Rietberg Zurich 6, 7. 9, 10. 11 . 12, 13. 14, 17. 20, 21, 29. 32, 33. 44, 49. 50; pl. 1, pl. 2. pl. 7. pl. 10, pl. 11, pl. 15, pl. 17 Muni Punyavijayaji Collection. Ahmed ab ad 15 Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz.O rientabteilu ng, Berlin 3, 53 Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul 28 India Office Library, London 1 Royal Asiatic Society, London 24 Los Angeles County Museum of Art 48 National Museum, New Delhi 46 The New York Public Library 2 Musee des Arts Decoratifs. Paris 43 State Library, Rampur 35 Himachal Pradesh State Museum, Simla 8 Freer Gallery of Art, Washington 16.22. 26 Google Original from Digitized by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Google Original from Digitized by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN A Jainesque Sultanate Shahnama and the Context of pre-Mughal Painting «As to style. it was the singular fortune of the Muhammadans to find themselves among a people their equals in conception. their superiors in execution, and whose tastes had been refined by centuries of cultivation. While moulding them. they were moulded by them. and, though insisting on the bold features of their own minaret and pointed arch, they were fain to borrow the pillared hall. the delicate traceries. and the rich surface ornaments of their despised and prostrate foe.» Hope & Fergusson. Architecture at Ahmedabad. 1866. It is no tonger necessary to argue the fact of its exis it. came to stay, and not only as a conquering force tence'. but Sultanate painting - painting done by or for driven by the ideals of Islam and fed by desire for do Muslims between 1200 and 1526 in lndia2 retains a minion and wealth. Subsequent centuries saw the estab - character lacking in sharp definition. Very little is known lishment of Islamic hegemony over large areas in nor still of the territorial extent within which certain styles thern India. the rise and fall of dynasties based in Delhi. prevailed; regional idioms are difficult to identify; it is the founding of significant pockets of power under lo rare to come by the name of a painter from this entire cal Muslim Sultanates at Jaunpur. in Bengal. in Gujarat. period; and documents that have a secure date and in Malwa and. southwards. in the Deccan. All of this provenance are few. It is all a little like leather shadow was possible only through the subjugation of the large puppets moving hazily behind a cloth screen with only native population. whether Hindu. Jaina or Buddhist. occasionally one coming up to the surface to reveal the However. it was not all confrontation between the dazzling glow of its colours. conquerors and the conquered. for the period is also marked by extraordinary attempts to reach out towards Here we draw attention to an outstanding illustrated each other by the two great cultures on the Indian soil. Shahnama-manuscript which came to light very re Inevitably. there was extended contact. even interpene cently and is already dispersed.' This Shahnama may tration: elements of the other culture were sought to be have a deep bearing on our understanding of this understood and adapted by each group unless not ut period. and since it raises questions about context and terly irreconcilable with its own ideas and values. The attitudes. apart from providing us with insights. the re great meeting point of religions - Sufism - took firm calling of that context briefly may serve a purpose. hold of many minds. Architecture synthesized diverse elements. Language and literature showed marked re There is increasingly little doubt that the Sultanate ceptivity. the native Indian groups absorbing much period is rich in painting. if as yet inadequately known. In from Persian and Arabic. and quite remarkably. Mus a sense this richness reflects the complex nature of the lims sett.led in India responded to. even appropriated. developments which were taking place in India in this literary forms in Hindi and other Indian languages. Th,s period. The end of the 12th century had seen the in development is best exemplified perhaps in the c~reer trusion of a power that. unlike many others preceding of the great Amir Khusrau (c. 1253-1325). poet. mu• Google Original from Digitized by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN s,c,an.mys11candmnova10r.whowrotew,thequalgrace who was carrvmg around a p0rtable painted dev,ce - and ease m Persian and Hmd, • There were others, and obv,ously a 'picture showman· -bumed ahve for this n ,s nornble thai some of the best-known lyncal works cnme • However, m the other Sul1anates 1he rulers of m the local dialects. 1he Chandayana, the Mngavara. wh,ch were not burdened with carrvmg the flag of 1he Padmavat8. were all comp0sed by Mushm poets• lslam,c orthodOKV w,th the same zeal as the Sultan of Delhi. the annude towards pa,ntmg seems 10 have The stale of pa;ntmg ,snot equally clear, and whole been far more toleranl as ,s evidenced by survovmg work m the native lnd,an tradmon wen1 on. develop examples of Sultanate work ments m the Sul1anate world were comphcated by sh1hmg at1'tudes towards this art on the part of their The known ollustrated manuscnptsthatconsto1ute th,s Muslim rulers Desp,rn many references to painting ,n work !all mto three different groups as class,fied by thehteratureofthepenod.there,shttlempa,nt,ng1hat Lostv' The first. •work m bas,c Iranian styles,. can be 1sfirmlyassoc1atedwnhthe ,mportant Delh, Sultanarn seentocons,stoltwoparts.theearl1errepresentedby poss,blybecauseoftheorthodoxattotude,nthelslam,c asmallgroupofmanuscnptsolthePers,anclass;csin world towards the art of pamhng some1h1ng that a a clearly provmcoal versoon of Persian work hke the rule1hke FerozeTughlaq (1351-1388) upheld when he Shahnama from the collection of Jules Mohl in the Bm- had traces ot all hgurat,ve pamtmgs removed from the 1sh L,brarvjOr 14031, ortheJavam,al-H,kayat. also,n walls of h,s palace He showed marked hostol,ty 1he same l1brarv[Or 116761. and the second by manu towardsallpa,nt,ng,formstancebyhavor,gaBrahmm scripts that are demonstrably connectedw,th spec,f,c Google Original from Oigib,ed by UNIVERSITI OF MICHIGAN centres of Sulrnnate power. works hke the Na11onal Mu seum Bus ran (No 48 6/4). the Bntosh Lobrary Mdtahal- Fiuala IOr 32991. !he India Office Library N(mamama (Pers,an Ms 149). and the Bnt,sh Library A1a1b as Sana·,(or 13718), all 1rom Mandu. the New York Pubhc Library select,ons from the Shahnama from Jaunpur (Spencer Collect,on). the 8nt1sh L,brary Sharafnama (the lskandar Nama o! Nusrat Shah from Bengal. Or 13836I.andtheratherla1egroupfromtheOeccan.con sIstm9 of works hke the Smdbadnama (Persoan Ms 3214)mthe lnd,a0ff1ce L,braryandtheChester Beatty Nu1um al-Ulum (lnd,an Ms 2) Losty sets these works apart!romtheothersw,th,n1h,sgroupbecauseofthe p,onouncedlnd,ancha,actenstocstheypossess The second group m Losty"s class,!icat1on cons,s1s of a «smallnumberofmanuscnptsprobablyno1connected wnhanvMushmcourtbutproducedforotherpatrons• showing clear1racesof 14thcen1uryMamlukandln1u styles mterm,Kmg woth med,eval lnd,an charactenstocs and best represented by1he Hanuanama(Or !ol 4181) and the Chandayana(Or fol 4181), both m 1he Staats- 3 ,,...,,.,.e.,,1.,......,....,....,, 1o1oi!ilt>c.,,t b1bhothekPreuss1scherKulturbes1tz Berhn.thed1s• persed Khamsao1 Am,r Khusrau of Oelh,: and the now vanished lskandemama The thord group 1hat Lostv speaks of oons,sts of manuscnpts hke the Bombay Pnnce o! Wales Chandayana (No 511/1-68) and the Manchester John Rylands Library Chandayana (Hin dustim, Ms. 1) , works rm which Pers,an and Indian ele ments are thoroughly synthesized, CoeK1stongmlnd1aw,1hth1srangeofSultanatework.o! course.wasagreatdealofpa,ntongmstylesfarmore lormlyrooted mthe lnd1antrad11<on, and produced for the greater part ,n 1he very areaswh,chwere now do m,nated by lslam,c power• Much. though not all. of th1swork was ,con,c ,n approach. al,ke ,n the eastern Palatrad,11onof8uddh1stmanuscroptswh,chheadsoft 1owards Nepal. and m the wes1ern Ja1na trad,uon wh,ch held sway not only m GuJara1 but ,n areas further off l,keRa1asthanandOelh1.MalwaandJa1mpur.andalso Google Original from Oigib,ed by UNIVERSITI OF MICHIGAN ,ncorporated w,th,n ,tself an occas,onal secular or Hindu work In fact 1he d1stmc1,on between Jama and Hindu ,snot a use!ulonetodraw.and1hework 1sbest des,gnated asJamesque. forwh,leJamatexts are tar more numerous. theor scr,bes and painters seem to have worked ,n the same s1yleonmanuscr1p1sthatful hlled d,tlerent sec1anan needs Whether on palm-leaf oron paper. these illustrated manuscrip1s were con servatove.ahke,nforma1ands1yle.as,stobeexpee1ed from essennal~ ,come works As a rule. these Jam esque works keep s1yhs1,cally 10 themselves. !ollow1ng ng,doonven11onsl1ke1heflatbackgroundsandthepro Jectmgfunhereye•.butoccas,onallyopemngup1oac commoda1e fore,gn elements hke the mtroductoon ol the Shah,foguresmtheJama hag,ograph,calwork. the Kalakacharya katha. ,n wh,ch the monk Kalaka seeks the a,d and ,mervent,on of a fore,gn monarch. the Shah,.and h,sarm,es The Shah, kingdoms were long dead and gone before the forst Kalakacharya katha• manuscript was produced. bu1 the pam1erd1ew upon h1sownawareness(or,mage)of"!ore19ne,s·wh,lem troducmgturban-and1ama-cladwamorsofthe Shah, kong·s armies arn:I m,xmg archa,st,c elements w,th ob- served ones ,n creatmg the type of the Shah, kmg h,m- self A ma1or styhst,c change tha1 1he pam1e, m1ro duced-thecos1Umesand the general appeara'leeof 1heShah,andh,sa,m,esweremanycased,fferentand 1h,s d,stongu,shed them -was 1he use of the three quarterfacefortheShah,kmg andh,sfollowers.w,th no proiectmg furihereyeand the pup,ls of bo1h eyes shown,nacorne,. 1hepa,n1erava,hng h,msello!mod elsfromAraborPers,an1llus1ratedmanuscr1p1sorlrom hgures on ,mponed painted ponerv wh,ch may have beenoommon.a11east,nthecommerc,allyact,vewes1 em pans of India ••Slowly_ butverv slowly_ 1h1sopen- mg upwnhman,cornc1rad1t,on led10 ma1orchanges ,n e ''""'•~••""'"" '(;""""' pamhng m1he l61hcenturvwh,ch. before the torma- 1,onoftheMughalschool sawthec,ea1,onoftheg,oup ofhvelymanuscr1p1sgenerallygrO<Jped10gethe,under thedes,gnat,onofthe Cltaurapanchas,A.J-styleg,oup" Oig"::."' Google Original from UNIVERSITI OF MICHIGAN Pain1ing,nlnd1a1nthetwoma1ortrad1t1ons.1helrana1e from ou1side and the one more native to the s01I. seemedasaruletoS!ayseparate.eventhoughshow ing awareness of. and even borrowing some elements from each other These developments are undoubtedly in1eresting. but of far greater s,gn1hcance are works tha1seem1oformalmk,abndgebetweenthetwotra• d1t.ons Now we know two such works. both of them Pers1antexts,llustratedbypaintersroo1ed1n1helnd,an trad1t1on.butwork,ngapparen1lyforMusl1mpatrons'' One of Jhem 1s the Berlm Hamzanama. and the other. 1h,sv1suallylarmoreexc,1ingJainesque Shahnama Becauseo!nsd,spersal.1t,sd11f,culttoreconstructth,s Shahnamalully Evenwhenfors1seenbneflybefore1ts dispersal. otwasev,dentthatthetextwas ,ncomplete onlyapanofthe Shahnamabeingcoveredintheclose to350fohosthatconsmu1edthevolumeatthatt1me It had und1st1ngu1shed leather covers. and the stitching thuaadl lyc onmo e1 lalu mhtm!lea 1l1ooons ein Wthhee mn aWniu! sscanwp t1.1 . nthoe uren wwaans. v1n1o- 1 F,om • .,. _ _, e._.,, ""'"""" --1e,,,_, sar-1-lauh Only at the begmn1ng of twosectoons was thereanarrow1llummatedpanelatthe1op.ofnopan1• cularquahty.Thefly-leafboreno1nfo,matoonexceptfor JhreesealsinPers,an.twocorcularandoneoval.all,m- perlectlystamped and all belonging to the same per• son.MuhammadFaz1l.buts1ruckmd,ffe,en1s,zesand at shght ,mervals There were no mspectoon notes On insidefol1os.twoof1hesamesealsthatwereonthefly leafreappeared.andheretheyweremoreclearlyleg1- ble and bore the dates 1107 (A.H -AD 1696) and 1129 (AH -AD 1718). making ,1 clear that the seals were those of a laterownerrathe11hanof the person who commissioned the manuscript The text being in complete. there was no colophon Theinformat1onthat the manuscropt yielded. ,n the stale in which 11 fost ap- 6 f«>moO...M-...., • ....,,.,_. ,,..d_..ot..., 11ionam.,. peared.waslhuspenpheralorneghgoble Thefol1osmeasure319x249cmandaremtheusual lslam,c vemcal code, format The manuscnpt bore Google Original from Oigib,ed by UNIVERSITI OF MICHIGAN stgnsol,ge,nddamage neaily,!lleBV1:1sc.rrymg smell worm holes and 1orn Of !,eyed at the edges The edget, W9fe soughl 10 be rep,1red wtth hand-made Pl· per a long 1,me bad< Th,s ,s evoden1 l1om the I.ct tti.t ,long the 1epa1red me1gm1. HCIIOl'I headings ,n red -re t.m,lormly wntten m 1hroughout 1he manuscrrpl !heH-reaceu1111andapprOl)na11lytdent1hedthe see11on of the 1ex1 A1 places. where the beginning or end ot a line had been damaged or obhHtrated, words hadbeenpa1ns1'kmglyfllled1n1orestorethetex1 Th,s however. hke the seclJOn headings along the ma,g,ns, WH done u'I na:111/,q, whe11n the me,n body of the tex1 ,s,nna11kh lt,sclearthatthevolumehadbeen-11 ,,._, • ....,1,.., ... --.,. and long used. for there were marginal notes contain- mg correc1,on1 and minor add111ons The fly-leaf. hav,ng been handled more ohen than the lol,os that followed. needed more e•tlnSMI lll)lllf wh!Ch WH done ,1 lent oniwooccu,ons Astnpofpaperaddedtothemarg,n could be deartv seen u Eurapean mac:h1ne-milde pa- per with tome watennarks and only some letteis l•k• w and ,n lhe ne•t hne LL' could be discerned The te)(I ,s wrouen ,n four columns, each w1th1n thm doublerules,nred.thepanelhHdoublerulesm1ed and one ,nblue Ina few pleces.vemcalcolumn-wide bands ere leh ba1e The consode11bly long pretace mmng PfON with verse and m the ume ti.Ind H 1he ta,rt ot the ep,c ooem wu ,110 m naskh ,nd was wnt- 1en aaon 1he page without being spht ,n10 columns Spread ove, th,s rubbed ,nd much-used irntOUfCnPt w,th ,ts compe1en1 but und,stmgu,shed calhgrephv were s1xtv s,x pa,m,ngs when IHI seen l11s theSC! J)ll1n1 ,ngs th.II 1edeem th,s manuscript and make 11 worthy of ,ece,v,ng 1he closes, p0ss1ble anen110n l1need11obesta1edat1he0utSC!ttha11here,ss11ong evtdenc. wtlhm 1he paintings 1hemselves not only ot 1he11 ln<l,anor,gm bt.il ol the,r being 1nthehandof a pamtei l>fmly 1,a,ned m the lnd,im 1,ad,11on The facl ,_ ,1Google UNIVERSOITrgYn aO Ff roMmIC HIGAN
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