The  origin  of  Indian  painting  goes  back  to  8000  years  and  an  account  of  its  development  is  inextricably meshed with the development  of Indian civilization. The Mughal School of miniature painting reached its zenith under Akbar and Jahangir.  The  Ain-i-Akbari shows  the  importance  the  art  had  attained  during  this  period.

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Story telling through paintings is an established art form in India. We find many examples of Ramayana and Mahabharata depicted in the form of continuous paintings, for example in Pattachitra of Odisha. Similarly, Jataka stories of Buddha are also found in paintings of Ajanta Caves in Maharashtra. Though this art form already existed in India, but Mughals with their rich colours and more realistic paintings took this art to its pinnacle.

Mughal Paintings:

• The credit for the development of Mughal painting goes to Akbar and Jahangir. The former possessed a library of 24000 Manuscripts, many of which were illustrated through paintings.
• In the year 1567, Akbar ordered the preparation of a lavishly illustrated manuscript of the Persian translation of the “Hamzanama”, the celebrated Arab epic about a legendary Hamza.
• Sayyid Ali and Abdus Samad were appointed to lead a group of roughly and hundred painters. The projects took 15 years to complete, and most of the Indian pointers who founded the Mughal School were trained during that period.
• One of the leading painters at Akbar’s court was a potter’s son Daswanth.
• Similarly, “Tutinama” was also an illustrated version of Persian tales in the form of 250 miniature paintings commissioned by Akbar.

Life and times of Mughal rulers:

• Mughal painting marks a unique blend of Persian and Indian ideas. Mughal painting was essentially a court art, developed under the patronage of the ruling Mughal emperors and began to decline when the rulers lost interest.
• The subjects treated were generally secular, revolving around themes like battles, court scenes, receptions, legendary stories, hunting scenes, wildlife, portraits, and the likes.
• Imperial Mughal painting represents one of the most celebrated art forms of India. It arose with remarkable rapidity in the mid-sixteenth century as a blending of three distinct traditions:
  • Court painting of Safavid Iran.
  • Indigenous Indian devotional manuscript illumination.
  • Indo-Persian or Sultanate painting, which is it is a hybrid of provincial Persian and local Indian styles.
• The result of this merging resulted in paintings of unprecedented vitality, brilliant coloration, and impossibly precise detail, is something dramatically more than the sum of its parts.

Contemporary social and political life of the people:

• Mughal Court paintings provide an insight into the life and times of rulers of the period. These paintings also reflect the contemporary social and political condition of the people. Social customs and courtly traditions are vividly depicted in these paintings.
• Mughal painting forms a dramatic episode in the history of India. Its aims and standpoint are secular and realistic: it is interested in passing events and most typically in the exact delineation of individual character in the portraiture of men and animals.
• It is dramatic rather than static, aristocratic more than surreal and academic rather than vocational.
• After Mughal, there came “company paintings” in India. But they were not as realistic and detailed as Mughal miniature paintings.

Conclusion:        

Thus it can be concluded that Mughal paintings are great  story tellers and are very informative, providing  us with deep insights into not only the life and times of the Mughals but also in rich Indian heritage and culture.