August 28th, 2002
Stanley Lane Poole, the most popular historian of the British period bestowed individual titles upon each one of the Mughal rulers considered ‘Great Mughal’. Thus Babur was called ‘the Brave’. His son Humayun was given the title ‘the Kind’. Akbar could not be given a –limited- to- a- specific area title and became ‘the Great’. Jahangir was ‘the Pleasure Seeker’.
Shah Jahan a great and successful general, a connoisseur of paintings, calligraphy music and gardens did not do well at the hands of Stanley Lane Poole. His magnificent monuments were the cause of his downfall and he earned the diminishing and limited title or sobriquet ‘Shah Jahan, the Palace Builder’.
Shah Jahan was undoubtedly one of the great builders in world history. His palace forts at Agra and Dillee, his new city of Shahjahanabad, the congregational mosques at Agra
Dillee and Multan the gardens called Shalimar in Lahore Dillee and Srinagar show design layout and execution of an order seldom equaled and never surpassed. There is the Taj Mahal, a monument to matrimonial love, which the Poet Tagore called ‘ A teardrop on the Cheek of Time’.
Unfortunately the mastery of Shah Jahan in the area of jewellery is now only hearsay as the artifacts have all been looted broken up and melted down The jeweled Peacock throne was, however, a wonder of the world of its time and remains a fable until today..
Mughal painting like all Indian arts has been given the ‘curio’ treatment by the West. For the European or USAmerican art lover critic or dealer Masterpieces arise only from the art of Europe.
The Padishahnama chronicle gives us an idea of what painting was like under the discerning patronage of Shah Jahan’. The illuminated manuscript has paintings of exquisite good taste and helps viewers see events of the past so clearly as to feel that they themselves are participants.
We have paintings from the time when Jahangir was Emperor and Shah Jahan a dutiful son who carried out campaigns to enlarge the empire. The filial devotion registered on Shah Jahan’s face is matched by the pride and joy of the father in the success of the son.
The reunion of the newly enthroned Shah Jahan with his sons shows intimate emotions in full court. Dignity is maintained although all main actors are close to dissolving into tears.
Another scene shows the Emperor in conversation with the Prime Minister Asaf Khan. The Persian Envoy is trying to attract the attention of the Emperor but he is quite impervious to all the acrobatics being performed. The painting of the Prince Dara Shikoh’s wedding shows the prince bowing his head to receive the veil (SEHRAA) to cover his face and avert the evil eye. The expression of paternal joy so great as to bring tears to the eye is rendered masterfully.
In another scene the Portuguese who were blasted and smoked out of Bandel are shown in court attempting to give lavish gifts to escape the wrath of the Emperor. They had been misusing the privilege of a factory at Hooghly by abducting and selling into slavery young boys and girls from Bengal. The justification used was religion. The restrained fury registered in the eye of the Emperor’s portrait in profile of the Emperor is most powerfully rendered.
There is another remarkable painting showing the incident when an elephant in Mast or Must attacked a teenage prince Awrungzeyb. In this elephant fight gone wrong the Emperor can see the danger but is too far away to help. The keepers and huntsmen are trying their best to divert the rogue elephant away from the Prince and the Prince himself is manfully responding to the threat with a spear he holds. The anxiety of a father is beautifully rendered within the confines of restraint and dignity necessary for the station of Emperor.
In the area of Music the National Museum Dillee holds a manuscript with one thousand lyrics in the Dhrupad style collected as favourite by Shah Jahan.
An area of mastery of Shah Jahan less well known is that calligraphy. On coming to the throne each emperor examined the precious manuscripts in the library and affixed his seal on an end page. Sometimes remarks were also inscribed. Shah Jahan has recorded that the name of the calligrapher who is supposed to have transcribed the book examined is not correct. He comments that the hand appears to be that of a more recent calligrapher rather than an old Master.
Critical examination by modern scholars has upheld Shah Jahan’s opinion.
The reason why all things Indian were run down and diminished was because the British had to justify their intrusion. For two hundred years or eight generations no Indian past or present was quite up to the mark. Now two generations of Indians have been born Independent and the wrongs of history should be righted.