Indian Painting B.A. II Dr. O. P. Parameswaran, Assistant Professor, Department of Fine Arts, Post Graduate Govt. College for Girls, Sector-11, Chandigarh.

'Hamza Nama' Paintings ( ), Mughal.

Mughal Painting Mughal Dynasty: Babar(born in 1483) ( ) ruled Humayum (b. 1508) ( , ) Akbar (b:-l542) ­( ) Jahangir(Salim) (b.1569) ( ) Shah Jahan (Khurram) (bI592)( ) Aurangzab (Alamgir) (b.1618) )

The first major production of the Mughal studio was probably begun under Humayun, but was completed about 1579 under Akbar's attentive eye, this was the Persian- Dastan- i- Amir Hamza or Romance of Amir Hamza ( also know as the Hamza- Nama) which consisted originally of 12 unsewn folios with over 1400 individual paintings on cloth.

The pictures are usually large- over two feet height and have the text written on the back, apparently so that they could be displayed while the romance was read aloud at court. The 'Akbari style' was a blend of Persian art with native Indian elements, distinguished from its decorative Persian prototypes by an extended sense of space and an agitated action rarely seen in Persian art.

Under the supervision of Mir Sayyid Ali and Abd-al Samad the imperial atelier of painters and calligraphers took shape: Their first endeavour was to complete the picture for the earlier Mughal illustrated manuscript Dastan-i -Amir Hamza (south Kensington and Vienna Museum). Begum in 1550 under Humayun, it took about or more than 25 years to finish.

All the paintings, however, show consistency in style because Mir Sayyid Ali had from the start planned out the whole work in the Safavid, style, though other artist, either Persian or Indian, assisted him in the actual painting. These early illustrations followed the Persian Safavid mode, a two dimensional, decorative way of painting without shading or perspective, eminently suitable for manuscript.

Like most oriental arts, it made excellent use of calligraphic line - drawing filled with brilliant enamel- like colours. Usually hilly landscapes with a lofty horizon formed the background of the pictures, with sky either in gold or pure lapis lazuli. They loved flowers, which enlarged out of all proportion, as seen in Persian carpets and canopies

The human figures, often in stereotyped poses, were shown in three quarter profile. Although the Persain School of painting gave a vast stimulus to the birth of the Mughal, its influence did not last. Indians learned from it the use of brilliant colours and refinement of lines. In the animal representation, the Indian genius manifested itself with that intimate knowledge and love which characterizes it.

The early pages are still within the Persian- Safavid idiom in their simple compositions tending to symmetry and restrained movement. Only colouring differs, the palette being warmer, while the drawing naturally is coarser on the larger scale required. Later the illustrators learnt to counteract this defect but the elaboration of rich patterns in architecture and costumes, while the hard outline was modified by directed lighting and other devices for increased realism.

The most striking development is in the composing; more and more each page is filled with dynamic movement, often of such violence that the scene can hardly be contained within the margins, which appear to cut the action at the edge, as if it were only a section from larger wall painting.

One of the most successful devices often used is the cutting of foreground figures, so that their heads and shoulders only are visible above the lower margin. This enabled them to create a feeling of aerial perspective which was still unchallenged at this time, allows the artist to show the outside as well as the inside of building which contain the main action.

A giant is one of the characters in the story; and his huge bulk fills several of the most striking pages, while many of the figures are represented as so near to the picture plane as to be disturbing. In the later volumes, especially on those pages where landscape relieves the oppressive density, new richness of texture is achieved without loss of ' dramatic interest and forceful action.