The wonder that was india

The stiff Iranian forms also underwent considerable change. Bihzad (1450-1536), a painter at the Timurid court of Sultan Husayn Mirza of Hirat, after studying human and animal life, fostered a naturalistic approach. The conventional stereotypes gave way to lively expressive figures in spatially organized groups. Bihzad was gifted with skill and originality in line drawing. His painting was distinctive in the frequency of low-toned browns and the lively combination of blues and greens with touches of bright red. His colour schemes were conventional, however, and the skies remained unchanged. His techniques were developed by his disciples, but none of them attained his mastery. Although he signed his miniatures, forgeries still appeared.

Bihzad's school remained influential, and a considerable number of talented Iranian painters, representing its best trends, gathered around Humayun during his exile in Iran, although his resources were slender. They included Sayyid 'Ali, Mulla 'Abdu's-Samad, and Mulla Dust Muhammad. 'Abdu's-Samad was appointed tutor to the young Prince Akbar by Humayun. Akbar enjoyed painting although he neglected his more formal lessons.

In about 1567 Akbar ordered the preparation of a lavishly illustrated manuscript of the Persian translation of the Hamza-nama, the celebrated Arab epic about a legendary Hamza (not the Prophet's uncle, Hamza bin 'Abdu'l-Muttalib). Sayyid 'Ali and 'Abdu's-Samad were appointed to lead a group of roughly one hundred painters. The project took fifteen years to complete, and most of the Indian painters who founded the Mughal school were trained during that period. By the end of the sixteenth century they had successfully synthesized ancient Indian plasticity with the Bihzad school's symmetry and proportion.

The Hamza-nama had 1,004 illustrated pages in its twelve volumes. The extant pages in Eastern and Western libraries provide a fascinating study of early Mughal painting in India, which initially followed the Bihzad school. Paintings made in the second half of Akbar's reign exhibit elements peculiar to India in costumes, buildings, and plant life, and a Mughal-Rajput colouring pervades the Iranian-Arab environment. The Tuti-nama (in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin), illustrated in the 1580s, also

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contains vivid representations of plants, flowers, animals, and men.

Mughal miniature painting, although based on the Iranian style, derives its distinctive character from indigenous painters whom Akbar employed. Until recently, apart from the N'imat-nama, some Jain paintings, and the continuation of Pala and Kashmir art in Nepal and Tibet, no specimens of Indian painting between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries were available. Now, however, some illustrated manuscripts by the court painters to the provincial rulers in Malwa and Jaunpur have been discovered. These show how painting has always been part of Indian culture. As soon as Akbar offered his patronage, many local artists thronged the imperial court. According to Abu'l-Fazl, 'Few, indeed, in the whole world are found equal to them.'8

One of the leading painters at Akbar's court was a potter's son, Daswanth. He used to paint figures on walls, and Akbar, impressed by his talent, sent him to 'Abdu's-Samad around 1575. His illustrations of the Persian translation of the Mahabharata now belong to the Raja of Jaipur. Another painter, Basawan, was equally talented. Abui-Fazl claims that he excelled in 'preparing backgrounds, drawing of features, distribution of colours, portrait painting and in several other branches'. Abu'l Fazl refers by name to only thirteen Hindu and five Muslim painters, although Akbar employed more than one hundred artists. Many signatures on the 112 large miniatures from the Tdrikh-i Khandan-i Timuriyya in the Khudabakhsh Library in Patna have been cut off by the careless binders.9 Out of the fifty-one legible names, only nine are Muslims, of whom three are Kashmiris. Of the six Hindus, one originated in Gwalior, four others came from Gujarat, while another was also a stone-cutter.

The Tarikh-i Khandan-i Timuriyya is not an original work, because it contains extracts relating to Indian history taken from the Tarikh-i Alfi, completed around 1592. These extracts were probably lifted from an earlier draft of the Tarikh-i Alfi in order to start the illustrations as soon as posible. Thus the paintings were prepared in the 1590s. A study of the signatures shows that in some instances the drawing was done by one artist and the colouring by another. In rare cases the outline was sketched in by one artist, the features were delineated by a second, and the faces were modelled in depth by a third. The work was designed to form a Timurid album covering the reign of Timur and his successors down to Akbar's time. The first miniature depicts Timur as a child playing with his younger comrades and assuming the position of a king. Of the Indian themes, the most interesting are Babur's rejoicing at Humayun's birth, when the Emperor invites his chiefs and nobles

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to a grand feast. Another miniature presents Humayun's accession to the throne. The miniature depicting his campaign against Champanir shows Humayun, followed by Bayram Khan and thirty-nine commanders, ascending the fort at night, and also the slaughter of the garrison. The scene of Akbar's birth is a masterpiece; Akbar's mother, dressed in a green robe, lies exhausted on a couch, and the baby Akbar is seen in the arms of a nurse with a high conical Tatar cap. The background shows rejoicing throughout the palace. The lower part of the painting shows how the news is transmitted to Humayun.

Abu'l-Fazl mentioned the titles of nine works which Akbar's court painters illustrated. Except for one, all have been saved from destruction. Of these the Babur-nama, dated 1597, is in the National Museum, New Delhi. Another illustrated copy, in the British Museum, was completed about the same time. The Akbar-nama, a copy of which is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, and the Razm-nama (the Persian translation of the Mahabharata) in the personal collection of the Raja of Jaipur, provide the best specimens of sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century miniature painting.

The scenes in the Babur-nama are a living memorial to Mughal vigour in battle and siege. They explicitly portray Babur's dynamic leadership. Some miniatures vividly highlight Babur's keen interest in everyday life; Indian animals are painted on the basis of his own descriptions. The exuberance of details in figure and animal drawing in the Razm-nama is also remarkable. Among other things this text portrays the colourful Rajput costumes and ornaments. The 117 miniatures in the Akbar-nama in the Victoria and Albert Museum present an exciting panorama of the many facets of Akbar's age.

The court painters had become aware of European miniature painting by the last years of Akbar's reign. In 1607 Father Jerome Xavier presented the Emperor Jahangir with an Iranian version of the Lives of the Apostles, Dastan-i Ahwal-i Hawariyan, which had been painted in India in the Italian style. Jahangir's artistic interests inspired his artists to draw upon European paintings for inspiration, and many copies were made of the miniature portrait by the famous and talented Isaac Oliver which King James I of England presented to the Emperor, through the ambassador Sir Thomas Roe, in 1615. Gradually the flat and clear-cut Iranian figures were abandoned for European line shading and chiaroscuro. In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries a clear sense of realism emerges in Mughal painting. The sixteenth-century Italian style of painting particularly influenced Miskin,

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who in 1595 illustrated the story of 'the unfaithful wife' in the Baharistan of Jami.

The works of painters during Jahangir's reign, such as Abu'l-Hasan, Manohar, Bishun Das, Goverdhan, Mansur, and Dawlat, show the crystallization of European, Indian, and Iranian artistic trends. This combination provided the ground for individuality and distinctive characteristics in late Mughal painting. Jahangir himself particularly admired portraits. Individuals were usually presented either in profile or in a three-quarter stance, against a turquoise or dark-green background. Two fine examples of group portraits are the scene of an audience (c. 1619), now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the scenes of the weighing ceremony of Prince Khurram (later Shahjahan), now in the British Museum.

One of the imperial artists, Mansur, specialized in painting rare animals and birds, while Pidarath and 'Inayat also skilfully depicted subjects from the animal and vegetable worlds. Many court painters captured scenes of Jahangir's hunting prowess. The animals are in characteristic poses and stand amidst distant hills. After 1615 Jahangir is represented in some miniatures as superhuman, shown surrounded by the halo reminiscent rather of Italian paintings of Christian saints than of the haloes of gods.

Most of Jahangir's well-known artists remained at Shahjahan's court. The most important painters in his reign were Kalyan Das (alias Chaturman), Anup Chitr, Rai Anup, Manohar, Muhammad Nadir Samarqandi, Mir Hashim, and Muhammad Faqiru'llah Khan. They improved colour techniques and used more subtle shades. Their subjects were realistic scenes from everyday life, such as dancers, concerts, and firework displays, although themes illustrating emotional tensions and noble sentiments were also popular. The Emperor's son, Dara Shukoh, also displayed an interest in European art, and his artists were strongly influenced by European techniques. His album is preserved in the India Office Library in London.

Aurangzib's rule, however, heralded a period of decline. He withdrew imperial patronage, and many artists were forced to work for the nobles, who did not pay well. A sense of stagnation developed. A surviving painting of Aurangzib shows him as a haloed, mounted figure receiving a sword from a saint. An orthodox Muslim, he ordered that all the wall paintings be plastered over. After his death, the dynasty also began to decline. His successors were interested in fine art but they lacked the resources to maintain peace and order, let alone to patronize artists. Most artists migrated to the west Himalayas bordering the Panjab and worked in the more peaceful dominions of the hill chieftains.

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The Mughal court frequently left the capital city, either for military reasons or on hunting expeditions. Jahangir in particular periodically visited his Kashmir retreat. This led to a productive mingling of the Mughal court style with that of the local artists, and interesting provincial styles developed. The most notable were the Rajasthan schools, whose paintings are the work of indigenous artists. The painters at the courts of the chieftains in Bundelkand, Rajasthan, and the Himalayan foothills were also stimulated by the changing artistic trends in the Mughal court. Their themes were inspired by both literature, such as the Puranas, the Ramayana, and the Mahabharata and daily life in the towns and villages. The legends of Krishna were a most popular subject, and Shiva's dance was also often portrayed. Greater contact with the Mughal court resulted in new themes of court life and the relations between the Rajput princes and the Mughal rulers.

A unique and interesting synthesis was the symbolic representation of musical modes in Rajput painting. Ragas are a series of notes on which a melody is based. Grammatically and symbolically they are masculine, and the raginis or lesser modes are feminine, looked on as the wives of the ragas. They were personified and associated with particular scenes from Hindu mythology. Many of these were obtained from romantic-devotional literature, especially the stories of Krishna. The Ragamala (Garland of Song) paintings depict ragas and raginis in their emotive settings, usually in a series of thirty-six scenes. Each melodic root form was symbolically assigned a specific colour, which remained constant in all compositions. The functions and qualities of the melodic roots determined the mood of their representation. The Rajput court painters improved upon earlier traditions, as shown by a comparison of figures in their Ragamala paintings with those in the Laur Chanda or Chandayan (an eastern Hindi ballad by Mulla Dawud). The synthesis of the Mughal and Rajput way of life pervades customs, manners and fashions. The raginis were portrayed as Mughal ladies sitting under blossom-covered branches, but these are invariably the branches of Indian trees. Different Rajput states, such as Jaipur, Jodhpur, Mewar, Bundi, and Kishangarh, developed schools of miniature painting with specific characteristics.

Medieval wall paintings are also interesting. In south India attempts at perspective are noticeable in the fragments in remote temples and in some frescoes from the Chola period in the great temple at Tanjore. Perspective was abandoned in the Vijayanagara period (1336-1565), in whose wall paintings the naturally hidden further eye protrudes from the profiles of the vigorous, richly dressed figures. Similar figures were painted in the nineteenth

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century under royal patronage on the walls of the maharajas' palaces in Trivandrum and Cochin. A cruder version appears on the ceiling of a Jain temple near Kanchipuram, on the walls of some of the courtyards of the Minakshi temple at Madurai and even in Tipu Sultan's summer pavilion at Seringapatam, where the outer walls are covered with scenes of his war against the British. There is no real development, however, and the work is indistinguishable from contemporary folk art. In fact, it bears a close resemblance to the soldiers and maidens, and lions and elephants, nowadays painted in vivid colours on white-walled Rajput houses. Unfortunately little is known of the history of wall painting under the Deccan Muslim rulers. The frescoes on the palaces of the Qutb-Shahi sultans of Golkonda fell to Aurangzib's fierce orthodoxy, leaving no trace.

MUSIC

In writing about medieval Indian music we are at a disadvantage in that there was no system of musical notation capable of recording anything more than the bare structure of a piece of music. From the sixteenth century onwards European musical compositions were regularly written down, but even here many of the finer points in their execution are lost. The situation in India was much worse. Only the basic notes of a melody could be recorded, and the subtle ornamentation and variations of the basic theme are lost for ever. We can separate performances of Bach and Scarlatti approximately as they were intended. The music of such a great performer and composer as Tansen is completely lost to us. Unlike architecture and painting, pre-Islamic music in Arabia was relatively advanced. As a result of their conquests, the music of the Arabs was rapidly impregnated with Byzantine and Iranian musical influences. Books on musical theory and performance, including works by the philosophers al-Kindi, al-Farabi, and Avicenna, were written in Arabic. At the end of the twelfth century two books in Persian are said to have been produced for Mu'izzu'd-Din Muhammad Sam. Dancing was also a recognized art form, as Barani's description of the revelries at Sultan Mu'izzu'd-Din Kayqabad's court suggests. The mere memory of the musicians and dancers at Sultan Jalalu'd-Din Khalji's court was sufficient to transport the aged Barani to the realm of youthful passions. According to Amir Khusraw, however, it was Indian music that burnt the heart and soul and was superior to that of all other

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countries. He claimed that it was so difficult that foreigners, even after a stay of thirty or forty years in the country, could not play a single Indian tune correctly.10

The cross-fertilization of Perso-Arab and Indian music had started even before the conquest of Iran by the Arabs. It is said that the Sasanid monarch Bahram Gur (421-39) established colonies of 10,000 singers and dancers from Hindustan all over his country." They may have been the ancestors of the gypsies who later spread to Byzantium and Europe. In the thirteenth century many Hindu musicians and artisans were converted to Islam. Although the courts offered them patronage and livelihood, many musicians preferred to serve the sufis, w'o were also connoisseurs of music, and who sharpened the talents of the musicians. Many distinguished musicians thronged sufi gatherings both to earn a livelihood and to gain religious merit.

Even as early as the thirteen century, the sufis considered Indian classical music and poetry more effective than Persian.12 The latter was not neglected, however, and the flood-gates of opportunity were opened for the development of a new form of music, pioneered by Amir Khusraw, which may be called Indo-Persian. Amir Khusraw was a favourite of both Shaykh Nisamu'd-Din Awliya' and the Delhi sultans. After Sultan 'Ala'u'd-Din Khalji's conquest of the Deccan, many distinguished musicians from that region moved to Delhi. Amir Khusraw seized the opportunity to study the Deccani music of the Karnataka school, which preserved the musical tradition of ancient India with greatest purity. Among the DeccanI migrants, the most prominent was Naik Gopal. The literary sources recount several stories of the encounter between him and Amir Khusraw. What emerges is the fact that Amir Khusraw could successfully copy and adapt the most difficult DeccanI classical music to his own technique and style. Amir Khusraw is said to have written several treatises on music. In his third volume of poems, entitled Ghurrat al-kamal and completed in 1294, Khusraw wrote that he had already produced three volumes of poetry and could easily write three more on music.13 Unfortunately, none of them was written, although he frequently refers to melodies and musical instruments in his other works. Rather surprisingly, he never mentions the sitar (a long-necked lute, now the most popular instrument of north India), which is popularly regarded as his invention. Later works credit him with inventing about nineteen melodic forms, of which khyal, tarana, and qawl are the most noteworthy.

Khyal in Arabic means 'imagination', 'reflection', or 'meditation'. The musical rhythms (talas) in khyal allow considerable variation

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and manipulation, so a khyal musician is able to project his own personality effectively. Tarana is a form of singing which uses meaningless syllables to escape the bonds of language and treats the voice purely as a musical instrument. It is usually sung in fast tempo and is similar to the south Indian tillana. Qawl is the precursor of the Muslim sufi music called qawwali. It was designed to adapt ancient Indian musical rhythms to Persian or Arabic verses.

The continued interest in both Indian and Persian music is reflected in two important works written by an anonymous author during Firuz Shah's reign. Both works were dedicated to the author's patron, Malik Abu Raja, the governor of Gujarat from 1374 to 1375. Abu Raja, according to his protege, was a connoisseur of both Persian and Indian music and organized discussions between the expert musicians at his court. The author, who was elderly, had already translated into Persian an Arabic book on music entitled Kitab Farighu'z-zaman fi ma'rifat al-ilhdn. The only known copy of this work is the Ghunyatu'l-munya, which is in the India Office Library, London. It is based on seven Sanskrit works, three of which must have been destroyed.14 Of the surviving books, Sangitaratnakara by Sarngadeva (1210-47), a musician to the Yada-va kings of Devagiri, is a monumental study which stimulated many experts to write commentaries on it. Besides drawing upon these and various other sources, the author of Ghunyatu'l-munya makes valuable comment on contemporary musical trends and informs us of some important developments in his own time. For example, he says that the finger-board of the bin or vina (the form of lute still current in south India) was enlarged to accommodate twenty-one note-points marked over it at larger intervals than before. This, he contended, radically promoted musical development.

The rulers of the regional kingdoms in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were also great patrons of music. In 1420 a musical treatise, Sangitasiromani, was dedicated to Ibrahim Shah Sharqi of Jaunpur. Husayn Shah Sharqi (1458-79) was a musical expert and devised many notes, scales, and melodies, of which Husaynl or Jaunpuri is very famous. He composed an Arabic air known as 'Zangula' or 'Jangla' and is credited with making improvements to 'Khyal'. In Kashmir, Sultan Zaynu'l-'Abidln's patronage of musicians was responsible for the compilation of a commentary on the Sangitaratnakara.

Raja Man Singh Tomar of Gwalior (1450-1528) was himself a skilled musician as well as a patron of musicians. He transposed the classical material form known as dhrupad (Sanskrit: dhruvapada) into

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Hindi. The musical rhythms of dhrupad are analogous to the poetic rhythm of Greek and Latin hexameter. The typical musical rhythm of this style is known as chawtala because four of its six bars (padas) are strongly accented. At his instigation his court musicians researched the rules governing ragas and enunciated them with greater precision. Their work was put into book form and entitled the Man Kautuhal (Curiosities of Raja Man). Man Singh's musicians publicized their results in various other Indian courts. One of the musicians, Baiju, known as Baora (Crazy), moved to the Court of Bahadur Shah of Gujarat and is said to have composed the melody 'Bahaduri' to commemorate his patron's name.

The fifteenth century is marked by even more significant de-velopments in the realm of devotional music. A classical melodic form emerged for the songs of Kabir which was known as Kabira'i. Another development was the invention of a special vocal form for the Vaishnavite songs, known as Bishunpad. Changes were also made to various notes and airs to harmonize them with the hymns of Baba Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, who was always accompanied by his Muslim minstrel Mardana, a specialist in devotional music.

The last Delhi sultans and the Mughals were also great patrons of music. The Lahjat-i Sikandari, written under Sultan Sikandar's patronage, is a notable contribution to classical music. Akbar's court musicians were both male and female, Hindus, Iranis, Turanis, and Kashmiris. Abu'1-Fazl names thirty-six musicians who played vocal and instrumental music at Akbar's court; of these ten were from Gwalior. They were divided into seven ranks. The leading singer was Miyan Tan Sen of Gwalior (1555-1610), and according to Abu'1-Fazl, India had not seen a singer of his talent for the last thousand years.15 The literary sources recount fantastic anecdotes of the effects of his dipaka (lamp) raga. It was believed that Tan Sen's melodies could make rain fall out of season, while his rdgas were supposed to set candles alight. He is, however, blamed for introducing a Persian influence into Hindu music.

Shahjahan cultivated music in his court and himself acquired considerable proficiency in the art. For the first ten yearsl of his reign Aurangzib generously rewarded his musicians and appeared to be devoted to music. From 1668, however, he tried to suppress it, although his sons and nobles continued their patronage.16 The greatest contribution to musical theory during this period was the Tuhfatu'l-Hind, written by Mirza Muhammad ibn Fakru'd-Din Muhammad for Aurangzib's grandson, Prince Muhammad Mu'izzu'd-Din Jahandar Shah, who reigned from 1712 to 1713. During Muhammad Shah's reign (1719-48) Mughal military and

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political glory declined rapidly, but music reached a new peak. The Emperor often performed himself, being expert in both singing and dancing.

The Deccan courts also cultivated music and dancing. Ibrahim 'Adil Shah II of Bijapur was both poet and musician. His poems, collected in the Kitab-i Nawras (The Sanskrit Navarasa — The Nine Emotions), were designed to be sung in different ragas which are identified as maqams (modes) in the Perso-Arabic system. Perso-Arabic music seems also to have considerably influenced the Deccani Karnataka music at the Vijayanagara court. Kallina acknowledges its influence in his commentary on the Sangitaratnd-kara in the mid-fifteenth century - as does Ramamaya, a minister of the Vijayanagara King Rama Ray a, in his well-known treatise, Svaramelakalanidhi, written in 1550.