- RECENT POSTS
- RARE BOOKS
- PAINTINGS
-
- THEMES
- The Grand Mughals - Babur to Bahadur Shah Zafar (1526-1857)
- Indian Life and Landscapes by Western Artists
- Literature, Music and Dance of Ancient India
- Collecting Rare and Antiquarian Books
- Museums, Libraries and Archives of the World
- Hinduism - the Sanathana Dharma
- India - After the advent of Photography
- Indian Cities - Through the Ages
- Art, Sculpture and Treasures of India
- Architecture of India
- India - Its People, Culture, Professions and Languages
- India and its Royalty
- Ancient India (Upto 1200 CE)
- The Honourable East India Company (1600-1858)
- India - As seen by foreign travellers
- The Dutch, French and Portuguese in India
- The Indian Independence Movement
- Dealers of Rare and Antiquarian Books
- History of Mysore
- India during the Colonial Era
- Company School Paintings
- Sikhs - Their Religion and History
- Buddhism - in the land of Buddha
- Kingdoms of India
- Islam in India
- Christianity in India
- Rise of the Maratha Power
- Hinduism in foreign lands
- Cartography of India
- Modern Literature in India
- Natural History of India
- India and its Many Geographies
- The Deccan Kingdoms
- Revisiting Indian History
- History of India's Trade, Industry and Finance
- Saints, Reformers and Pioneers
- Astronomy, Ayurveda, Yoga, Science and Mathematics in Ancient India
- Hindu Empires of Southern India
- Colonial Literature of India
- Art and Artists of the Twentieth Century
- Rare Dictionaries of Indian Languages
- The History of India - By its various Historians
- Travel Literature of Colonial India
- The Foreign Invaders
- Jainism and its ancient origins
- RBSI in Media
- Rare Books of World Literature
- Sanskrit - its grammar and antiquity
- Neighbouring lands of India
- The Parsis - Who made India their home
- Military History of India
- THEMES
- JOIN RBSI
A river scene with a nobleman in a morpunkhi, with a shrine and travellers - 1760
Opaque watercolour of a river scene in Murshidabad, West Bengal, by an anonymous artist working in the Murshidabad style, c.1760.
A peacock shaped barge sails down the middle of the river with a wealthy nobleman passenger, his flag flying on the stern with the emblem of the double-bladed sword ('zulfiqar') of Ali. On the river bank in the foreground, a lady visits a shrine to Shiva, while on the far bank travellers pass along a road which runs past a staging post and through a village. The nobleman could be Zulfiqar al-Daula Mirza Najaf Khan (d.1782), a Persian who rose to be subadar of Allahabad, and whose emblem as suggested by his title would have been the double-bladed sword.
Copyright © The British Library Board
Mughal painting quickly became popular at the courts of their feudatories and sub-ordinates. This style, usually of less finesse than the paintings produced from the Imperial atelier itself, came to be called the "Provincial Mughal" style. Murshidabad became a prominent centre for such paintings. It is in fact thought that in the late 18th century, due to declining patronage in the Court at Delhi, several painters migrated to Murshidabad. Thus resulted the Murshidabad school which combines several influences along with the Mughal style being one of the main ones.
Its great that RBSI is doing a series of posts on this school !
Interesting to see the horses tethered from in front and by their hind legs - stretched out in an uncomfortable position. This generates so much "discussion" on a number of pages/sites - since it is not a good way of keeping horses (from an animal welfare standpoint). It is reasonable to tether front and rear when in close proximity - but not at full stretch. This picture (an other wonderful Murshidabad offering) certainly proves that the practice has been handed down thro many generations.
The banyan tree with the two sadhus and women bringing offerings...a sight that can be seen even today in some parts of India...