The Book of War: The Free Library of Philadelphia's Mughal Razmnama Folios

Among the many treasures of the John Fredrick Lewis Collection in the Free Library of Philadelphia are twenty-five elaborately illustrated folios from a single Mughal manuscript, the Razmnama (literally, "Book of War"), dated to 1598–99. The manuscript that contained the Free Library's pages was created during the reign of the great Mughal Emperor Akbar (reigned 1556–1605).

Although the pages from the 1598–99 Razmnama have been dispersed to collections around the world, they were once bound into a single book whose folios numbered in the hundreds. This exhibition is the first time since 1923 that all twenty-five of the Free Library's pages are being displayed together. The extensive conservation treatment necessary to exhibit these pages has been made possible through a generous gift from Dr. Dorothy del Bueno. The Book of War: The Free Library of Philadelphia's Mughal Razmnama Folios affords a rare opportunity to explore, through the lens of a single manuscript, an exciting moment of artistic experimentation and cultural exchange, and is the happy result of an ongoing collaboration between two Philadelphia institutions.

Mughal Book Arts

The Arts of the Book During the Mughal Dynasty

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.

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.

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.

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).

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

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.

The Mahabharata Story

The Story of the Mahabharata

The ancient Sanskrit text of the Mahabharata, traditionally attributed to the sage Vyasa, may be the longest epic poem ever composed. Multiple stories of gods and heroes are contained within a complex framing narrative that recounts the struggle between warring cousins, the Pandavas and the Kauravas, over the throne of Hastinapura. After the eldest Pandava brother, Yudhishthira, loses the family's possessions to the Kauravas in a fateful game of dice (see left), the Pandavas are forced into exile for twelve years. Guided by the god Krishna, the Pandavas attempt to forge peace with their cousins—but the two families eventually fight a war that the Pandavas win. In spite of this, Yudhisthira is deeply troubled by the dishonor and malice perpetrated over the course of the war, and it is for this reason that he alone among his family receives liberation upon his death. Through its tales of rivalry and adventure, the Mahabharata, of which the Bhagavad Gita is one section, addresses a host of philosophical and ethical issues, making it a core text for Hindus to the present day.

The Mughal Emperor Akbar was probably interested in the Mahabharata for a number of reasons. First, he undoubtedly found its focus on war and dynastic succession similar to the most popular Persian epic, the Shahnama (Book of Kings), a quasi-historical chronicle of the rulers of Iran. Second, creating a Persian translation of the Mahabharata would show the court that there were universal truths common to both Hinduism and Islam. Finally, since Muslims represented only a small minority within the religiously diverse Mughal Empire, the translation of this great Hindu epic was plain good politics.

The Manuscript

A Sub-Imperial Manuscript?

Until fairly recently it was assumed that this 1598–99 Razmnama had been commissioned by a Mughal prince or another member of Emperor Akbar's courtly administration rather than by the emperor, himself. This assumption rested primarily on the notion that the paintings in the manuscript were of lesser quality than those known to have been created for Akbar. Certainly the compositions in this Razmnama are simpler and less pigment-rich than those in the deluxe manuscripts done for the emperor, such as the imperial Akbarnama ("Book of Akbar"). However, the paintings from this manuscript are actually extremely accomplished. For example, many display a wash technique where the thinness of the paint made it almost impossible for the artist to make changes or corrections once the design had been laid out. In addition, the artists of the 1598–99 Razmnama displayed their skill and originality by inventing many new compositions, even for scenes that had already been depicted in the Razmnama made for Akbar in 1584–86.

Furthermore, many of the names of the individual artists written on the illustrated pages of the 1598–99 Razmnama match those of painters known to have worked on manuscripts illustrated in the imperial painting workshop. This suggests that not only was this Razmnama produced in the imperial workshop and thus under the emperor's direct patronage, but also that it received the attention of some of the premier artists. Perhaps the 1598–99 Razmnama was intended as a gift for a prince or a courtier and as such did not warrant the kind of time and resources lavished on paintings made for the emperor himself.

Provenance

The Life of the Free Library's 25 paintings from the 1598–99 Razmnama

By tracing the history of the 1598–99 Razmnama we can gain a better understanding of changing attitudes towards Mughal painting over the last several centuries.

The Eighteenth Century

At some point in the middle of the eighteenth century, two detached illustrated leaves from the manuscript entered the collection of Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh of Jaipur (reign 1779–1803), a Hindu kingdom in the state of Rajasthan. These paintings were pasted onto large album pages, a practice that was not uncommon at this time. Indian collectors avidly amassed paintings and calligraphic specimens from a variety of sources, which were then arranged into an album format. A greatly illustrated manuscript like the 1598–99 Razmnama was particularly susceptible to such selective fragmentation as it held a veritable storehouse of images in the then much prized Mughal mode.

The Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

At some point over the next several centuries, the bulk of the manuscript made its way to London, where it was sold at auction in 1921. The Razmnama's last five chapters—bound and containing 24 paintings—were auctioned off in a single lot, while the remaining 125 paintings were dispersed as single, detached leaves. It is difficult to say when precisely the manuscript was cut up. It is certain that paintings had been removed prior to this point, but when precisely the 1598–99 Razmnama underwent such thorough dismemberment is hard to pinpoint. There remains the possibility that the manuscript's paintings were excised in order to maximize profit at auction. Simply put, it was easier to sell individual paintings, the accompanying text discarded, than to sell a single, intact manuscript. This piecemeal approach to the Mughal manuscript fit well with predominant tastes at this time, as paintings were appraised as single works of art, rather than as part of a larger, bound ensemble.

The sale of the Razmnama paintings at a London auction reflects the growing interest in Mughal painting among European and North American collectors. Several factors contributed to the growth in popularity of Mughal paintings in particular. First, the looting of the royal collections in Delhi, in the aftermath of the rebellion of 1857, resulted in the transport of many Mughal treasures to British soil. Second, the opening up of the Suez Canal in 1869, as well as advances in rail technology, facilitated the movement of manuscripts and other goods from India to points westward. Finally—and perhaps most importantly—the end of the nineteenth century saw a change in attitude towards Mughal painting. With the backdrop of the growing Art Nouveau movement, collectors came to re-evaluate these detailed miniatures from India in light of their craftsmanship and dynamic designs. The turn of the century also saw a shift in specifically British attitudes towards Indian crafts and fine arts. Once perceived as sub-standard, Mughal painting was re-imagined as a treasured tradition inherited by the British Empire. These forces combined served to fuel collectors' interests in the painting traditions of the once great Mughal court. By the 1910s and 1920s, the scholarly community had followed suit, with the publishing of seminal studies of Mughal painting by Percy Brown, Hermann Goetz, and Ivan Stchoukine, to name only a few.

Very soon after the auction, the 25 illustrated folios today housed in the Free Library of Philadelphia came into the possession of John Frederick Lewis, a noted philanthropist and collector of European and Oriental manuscripts, cuneiform tablets, and early American portraits. In 1923–24, selections of Persian and Indian works of art, including the group of Razmnama paintings, were exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the landmark Philadelphia institution for which Lewis also happened to serve as President from 1907–1928. Remarkably, this was one of the earliest exhibitions of Persian and Indian paintings in the United States. As such it perhaps reflects more so Lewis's enthusiasm for book arts and paleography, rather than a particular national trend.

1932–Present

After Lewis's death in 1932, his widow donated the Razmnama paintings, along with many other treasures, to the Free Library of Philadelphia. Five of the paintings were next exhibited only in 1986, in the exhibition Painted Delight: Indian Paintings from Philadelphia Collections, which was held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Dr. Stella Kramrisch, the curator of the exhibition, placed special emphasis upon Indian rulers, including the Mughal emperors, as patrons and connoisseurs of art. This Philadelphia exhibition was one of many such showcases of Indian art mounted across the United States during the same year on the occasion of the Festival of India, a year-long collaboration between the U.S. and Indian governments to foster awareness of India's cultural riches.

The generous gift of Dr. Dorothy del Bueno, which has enabled these twenty-five Razmanama paintings to be conserved and exhibited here, ensures that future generations will have the opportunity to enjoy these remarkable Mughal treasures.