During the reign of the Mughals in the mid-16th century, the subjects of miniature paintings included portraits, court scenes, flora and fauna. In the Rajput (in Rajasthan) and Pahari (in the Punjab hills) courts, the paintings continued to bring to life poetry, age old legends, religious mythology and the moods of love and changing seasons.
It was essentially a product of the Mughal court. In form and content, it happens to be a departure from collective community tradition just as the Mauryan art was more than a millennium and a half before.
Mughal painting marks a unique a blending of Persian and Indian ideas. Mughal painting was essentially a court art, developed under the patronage of the ruling Mughal emperors and began to decline when the rulers lost interest.
Mughal artists due to new and more sophisticated techniques, learned both from Persian and European traditions. Pigments too contributed significantly to the distinctiveness of a style, fri contrast to pre-Mughal paintings, those of the Mughal and Rajput school reflect an enormous increase in the range of colors.
The subjects treated were generally secular, revolving around themes like battles, court scenes, receptions, legendary stories, hunting scenes, wildlife, portraits, and the likes.
The ancestral home of Mughal painting was originally in Samarkand and Herat where, under the Timurid kings in the fifteenth century, Persian art reached its zenith. An offshoot of Central Asian Art, the term, Indo-Persian, or more precisely, still, Indo-Timurid, is regarded by some authorities as a more suitable name for this particular development of Indian painting.
It was under Jahangir that Mughal painting attained its greatest perfection. Jahangir constantly refers to the court painters in his memories and mentions the valuable presents and the honors which he bestowed upon them.
India Mughal painting
