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The Arts of the Book During the Mughal Dynasty
 The Gods and Asuras Churn the Ocean of Milk
From a dispersed Razmnama (Book of War)
Ascribed to Fattu, Indian
Northern India, Mughal Court
Manuscript dated by internal colophon to 1598–99
Opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper
The Free Library of Philadelphia, Rare Book Department, John Frederick Lewis Collection.
The founders of the Muslim Mughal Dynasty came into India from Central Asia at the end of the sixteenth century carrying with them many traditions of Persian imperial culture, particularly the arts of the book. Akbar, the third Mughal emperor, was himself a powerful leader who brought a vast portion of the subcontinent under Mughal rule by combining military skill and political-religious inclusiveness. He was also a liberal patron of the arts.
Most of the books produced at Akbar's imperial workshop were written in Persian, the official court language. These texts are royal histories, epics, and poetic narratives drawn from the literature of the Persian world. Surprisingly, although the Razmnama is written in Persian, its subject does not emerge from the Persian literary tradition. Rather, it is a translation of the Mahabharata, one of the great epics of Hinduism. Akbar himself commissioned scholars to abridge and translate this essential Hindu text so that it would be more widely accessible.
However, this Razmnama is more than a text. It also includes many exquisite and elaborate illustrations. In Akbar's imperial atelier, artists recruited directly from the Persian Safavid court worked side by side with Central Asian and Indian artists, often collaborating on the same manuscripts. In addition, many imported European prints and painting entered the Mughal collection during the late sixteenth century and artists adapted selected European characteristics, such as the illusion of depth through shading, into their own work.
Thus, in both text and illustrations, the Razmnama speaks to the diverse cultural, religious, and linguistic character of the Mughal court. The text represents the effort of a Muslim ruler to understand the foundations of Hinduism, so deeply rooted in his kingdom; the images herald the creation of a new artistic language.
Learn More About Translation Work at the Mughal Court >>
 Hindu and Muslim Scholars Translate the Mahabharata from Sanskrit into Persian
From a dispersed Razmnama (Book of War)
Ascribed to Dhanu, Indian
Northern India, Mughal Court
Manuscript dated by internal colophon to 1598–99
Opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper
The Free Library of Philadelphia, Rare Book Department, John Frederick Lewis Collection.
The translation of the Mahabharata into Persian was the product of a lengthy collaboration between Muslim scholars and learned Brahmins. This partnership was crucial, for the courtiers appointed to supervise the project were neither fluent in Sanskrit nor in possession of a thorough knowledge of the arcane and lengthy Hindu epic. The project of rendering the Mahabharata into Persian involved several steps: first, Hindu scholars prepared an 'explanation' of the epic, which the Muslim theologian Naqib Khan then used to fashion a narrative in Persian. The court poet Faizi's transformation of the Persian translation into more elegant prose completed the process.
The Mahabharata project was one of many translation exercises undertaken at Akbar's court. In 1574, Akbar established a translation bureau (maktab-khana) in his capital at Fatehpur Sikri. Here, the emperor's top scribes and secretaries were given the task of translating a range of Sanskrit texts, including the Ramayana, which, next to the Mahabharata, is the other great Hindu epic. Akbar's interests were not limited to Sanskrit, however. He ordered Persian translations to be made of Arabic encyclopedias and histories. Attention was also given to the Baburnama, the Turkic-language memoirs of Babur, Akbar's grandfather and the founder of the Mughal dynasty. Though portions of it had previously been translated into Persian, Akbar ordered a new Persian rendition of the text to be made. This type of large-scale translation of a large body of texts into a single court language follows a royal Islamic tradition that can be traced to the ninth-century Abbasid court of Baghdad, where vast numbers of Greek texts were translated into Arabic.
Persian was more than a privileged language of the court; it was the official language of the Mughal Empire. Though the Mughals themselves were originally Turkish speakers, and the vast majority of their subjects spoke Hindi, Akbar declared Persian to be the official language of the imperial administration at all levels. The institution of the Persian language as an official tongue during Akbar's reign seems to have been viewed as an effective means of negotiating regional and sectarian variance. Persian was neither native to the Mughals nor to India; as such it could serve to neutralize differences between Central Asian Turks and Hindi-speaking Indians, acting as a counterforce to balance the vying interests of ambitious nobles and administrators.
Learn More About the Formation of Mughal Painting >>
The formation of a distinctive Mughal painting idiom took place over decades. At many points in time, the imperial workshop became infused with new ideas, in the form of both traveling artists and artistic materials.
 A Young Prince Riding
Northern India or Afghanistan (Kabul); Mughal court
c. 1550–55
Opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper
Alvin O. Bellak Collection, 2004-149-12
The imperial Mughal painting workshop was established by two master artists brought to India from the Persian Safavid court by the Emperor Akbar’s father, Humayun (reigned 1530–40 and 1555–56). Most of the characteristics of this painting, from the three-quarter profile to the delicate "floating" flowers, indicate it was likely made by one of these Persian artists.
The early Mughal emperors were also inheritors to rich Jain, Hindu, and Islamic painting traditions that had been thriving in India for centuries. In Akbar's zeal to create a world-class painting atelier, he recruited many Indian artists who were trained in these varied and local traditions. One can easily detect elements of these different painting modes in the Mughal artist's stylized depiction of trees and the treatment of female figures (compare below left and right).
 The Earth Goddess Returns the Stolen Goods to Krishna and Pays Homage
Page from a dispersed manuscript of the Bhagavata Purana
Northern India, probably Delhi-Agra region
c. 1525-40
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
Alvin O. Bellak Collection
 Sage Brihaspati Describes the Evils of Anarchy to King Vasumanas
Page from a dispersed Razmnama (Book of War)
Ascribed to Bhagavana
Northern India, Mughal court
1598–99
Opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper
The Free Library of Philadelphia, Rare Book Department, John Frederick Lewis Collection.
 An Evangelist Writing with the Aid of a Woman Holding an Inkwell
Attributed to Manohara
Northern India, Mughal court
c. 1595–1600
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
Alvin O. Bellak Collection, 2004-149-14
One of the distinguishing features of sixteenth-century Mughal painting is its receptiveness to new and different artistic traditions. This is perhaps best exemplified by the role played by European prints in the development of a Mughal artistic aesthetic. Mughal paintings themselves provide firm evidence that Akbar’s artists consulted European prints from a very early stage. After the arrival of the first Jesuit Mission at the Mughal court in 1580, the amount of European prints available to Mughal artists increased. In 1595, the Jesuits brought a copy of Hieronymous Nadal’s Evangelicae historiae Imagines, a Gospel picture book published in Antwerp. This profusely illustrated tome, featuring engravings designed by the Flemish artists, provided Mughal artists with numerous compositions from which to copy, adapt, and quote.
The Mughal Painting Workshop
 The Monkeys and Bears Construct a Bridge to Lanka
Page from a dispersed Razmnama (Book of War)
Composition ascribed to Shravana; faces by Sangha/Shankara(?)
Northern India, Mughal court
1598–99
Opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper
The Free Library of Philadelphia, Rare Book Department, John Frederick Lewis Collection
Much of what we know about Akbar's painting workshop ( taswir-khana) has been gleaned from imperial Mughal paintings themselves. The 25 paintings in the Free Library's collection contain a wealth of data. To begin, all of the illustrated folios, except for one, bear ascriptions, located just below the painting, which tell us who were the artists responsible for the compositions. It is important to understand that these ascriptions are not signatures. Rather, they are more akin to a form of record-keeping. More than likely, after the paintings were completed, an editor or project manager added these notes in order to keep track of which artist had completed which painting. In a single case, this textual record informs us that one artist executed the bulk of the painting, while another completed only the faces. It is also common to find an artist identified as being the son of another artist. The prevalence of ascriptions of this type suggests that it was not unusual for sons to adopt the same profession as their artist fathers. Some scholars have also suggested that the 1598–99 Razmnama may have been a testing ground for young, relatively inexperienced artists.
While there is a stylistic uniformity apparent in the paintings from the 1598–99 Razmnama, certain illustrated passages indicate that artists had some freedom to create their own, individualized visions of frequently represented characters. For example, in one painting the hero Rama, since he is considered an incarnation of the god Vishnu, is shown with a blue complexion, while in another composition a different artist has painted Rama using flesh-colored pigments. These sorts of inconsistencies are likely difficult to avoid when so many are involved in the production of a large, profusely illustrated manuscript.
We can also learn something about the process by which the manuscript was constructed. Close examination of the folios shows that the Razmnama text was written on separate leaves of paper that were later glued to the leaves on which the illustrations were painted. This may provide evidence that scribes and artists worked simultaneously on their respective projects. Rather than having to wait until a scribe had finished copying his allotted selections of text before beginning to paint the accompanying illustration, an artist could work at his own pace and according to the demands proscribed by his own schedule. In sum, this was a pragmatic measure that expedited the completion of the manuscript. Of course, another practical consideration is the strength of the individual folios. By constructing illustrated folios from more than one leaf of paper, the overall integrity of the paintings would be greatly improved, ensuring that they would be sturdy and thus long-lived.
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