Mughal Painting In India

The Mughals made a distinctive contribution in the field of painting.They introduced new themes depicting the court,battle scenes and the chase and added new colors and new forms.The revival began under Akbar.he organized painting in one of the imperial establishments karkhanas.Here painters from different parts of the country came together.Jaswant and Dasawan were two of the famous painters at Akbar’s court.Indian themes and Indian landscapes became very popular limiting the influence of Persian style.European paintings was introduced at Akbar’s court by the Portuguese priests.Soon principles of fore shortening where near and distant images could be placed in perspective were adopted.

  Mughal painting especially portrait painting reached a climax under Jahangir.His court patronized many of the best artists of the time like Bishan Das,Murad,Mansur and Bahzad.While the tradition continued under Shah Jahan,Aurangzeb’s lack of interest forced the artists to disperse to various provincial capitals where local governors employed them. They helped in the development of painting in the states of Rajasthan and Punjab etc