Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T00:42:39.249Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - Miniature painting: Ahmadnagar and Bijapur

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

Get access

Summary

ahmadnagar

The briefest and most mysterious phase of Deccani painting occurred at the late sixteenth-century court of Ahmadnagar. Brief, because, all told, it lasted barely three decades; mysterious, because we know nothing of its antecedents nor its aftermath, nor even the identities of its principal artists and patrons. All that survive are the illustrations to a historical manuscript which can be considered the ‘preclassical’ phase of the school, three great ‘classical’ portraits of remarkable power, these latter amongst the most profound and subtle images India has produced, and a handful of drawings which, although fine works of art in their own right and obviously related to the three great portraits in style and costume, do not quite measure up to them in expressive power. This artistic tradition – if a school of such short duration can be termed a tradition – was a mere flash of artistic brilliance, snuffed out by the Mughal conquest in 1600. We assume of course that the original production of art at Ahmadnagar was substantially larger than what has survived the vicissitudes of history, though we doubt that any of the Deccani centres approached in quantity the output of the Mughal school.

The Nizam Shahis were the ruling dynasty, and three sultans seem to have been generous patrons: Husain and his sons Murtaza I and Burhan II. The earliest surviving paintings illustrate a manuscript of the history of the reign of Husain; the text composed by Aftabi, entitled the Tarif-i Husain Shahi, is now in the Bharata Itihasa Samshodhaka Mandala, Pune. Husain led the alliance with the sultans of Golconda, Bijapur and Bidar which defeated the Hindu empire of Vijayanagara in January 1565. He died five months later. The Tarif praises Husain and his wife Khanzada Humayun, describes the defeat of the Vijayanagara army, but does not mention the sultan’s death. We conclude that the manuscript was produced in about 1565, between the sultan’s victory and his death.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×