"Mughal paintings reflect social harmony in contemporary society." Discuss.

Answer:

Mughal painting was a composite art produced by Hindu and Muslim artists working together under imperial patronage, and much of its subject matter reflects the plural culture of the court. Yet it is essentially an elite art, and its harmony is that of the court rather than of society at large.

Evidence of harmony

• Hindu and Muslim artists, Daswanth, Basawan, Kesu Das, Abul Hasan and Mansur, worked side by side.
• The Razmnama and Ramayana were illustrated in the imperial atelier.
• Jesuit-inspired Christian subjects, the Madonna and angels, entered the repertoire.
• Jain and Hindu manuscripts were illustrated in the Mughal manner.
• Portraits show Hindu nobles, Rajput chiefs, Sufis, yogis and Jesuits at court.

Reflections of composite culture

• Persian technique, Indian colour and European perspective were fused into one style.
• Akbar's sulh-i-kul found visual expression in these inclusive subjects.
• Jahangir's allegorical paintings show him embracing rulers and honouring holy men of all faiths.
• Court scenes depict a nobility drawn from many communities and regions.

A critical qualification

• The art was courtly and served imperial ideology, not a mirror of society.
• Ordinary life, peasants, artisans and the poor, appears only incidentally.
• Patronage declined under Aurangzeb, showing how far it depended on the ruler's outlook.
• The harmony depicted was that of the elite, and did not extend to society generally.

The statement thus holds good for the world the paintings depict rather than for Mughal India as a whole. As art historians observe, the atelier's mixed workforce and inclusive subject matter genuinely embodied the composite culture the emperors fostered, but that harmony was a courtly ideal projected as much as a social reality recorded.