Mughal Drawings

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I scanned the images and text below from Andrew's folio of printed plates called:

TREASURES OF INDIAN PAINTING

SERIES FOUR

With An Introduction And Notes By

ASOK KUMAR DAS

MAHARAJA SAWAI MAN SINGH II MUSEUM

CITY PALACE, JAIPUR

Bittern

Work of Nanha.

Inscribed: Allah-hu-Akbar Shabih bhajan bajban miguand; khusfarmudand, raqm-e-Nanhan

c. 1605-1610

Nanha started working in the Akbari atelier from an early date. His works are found in the Jaipur 

Razmnama and Ramayana and many other Akbar period manuscripts. He continued to work till the 

first few years of Jahangir's reign as his work is found in the Anwar-i-Suhaili MS in the British 

Library. His nephew Bishndas was one of the leading painters of Jahangir.

This is a good likeness of a Bittern (Botaurus stellaris). There is no reference to this bird in the 

Tuzuk or any other contemporary work.

Horned Ram

Unsigned.

c. 1605-1610

This fine portrait of a wild ram (Ovis cyclaceros Hutton) standing majestically belongs to a small 

group of bird and animal pictures prepared in the beginning of the seventeenth century. There is a 

closely similar drawing of the head and forepart of a ram in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 

attributed by A. K. Coomaraswamy to Ustad Mansur (Catalogue of the Indian Collection of the 

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Vol. vi, Mughal Painting; 51, plate XLII).

There are several references to wild ram in the Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri. In one of these he writes about 

his investigation to find out whether worms develop in the horns of the wild ram which irritates 

the male into fighting.

Markhor

Unsigned.

c. 1615-1620.

Both Babar and Jahangir wrote about the Markhor in their memoirs. Markhors - capra megaceros 

Hutton or capra falconer Wagner - are found in the hilly regions of Kashmir, Ladakh the Hindukush 

and Afghanistan. On one occasion Jahangir notes in the Tuzuk: "The same Afghans [Shinwari 

Afghans] brought a hunted markhor goat the like of which I had never heard of or imagined. I 

ordered the painters to draw a likeness of this animal. It weighed four Hindustani maunds. The 

horns measured one and a half yards by the yard stick'. He reared two male Markhor goats when 

he was halting at Ahmedabad, which were paired with Barbary ewes brought from the Arabian 

port-city of Darkhar.

Out of two identical studies of this animal, the one in the Victoria and Albert Museum (No 138-

1921 IM) bears an attribution to 'Inayat'.

Falcon on a Bird-rest

Signed on the bird rest: 'Amal-e-Nadir-ul-' Asr Jahangirshahi

c. 1618-1619

Jahangir was a keen falconer and treasured fine specimens of falcons brought from different 

places. He wrote at length about a superb falcon brought by his envoy Shah 'Alam as a present 

from the Persian emperor Shah 'Abbas, which was mauled by a cat and died. He told his painters 

to take a likeness of the bird for preserving it in the Jahangirnama. This signed study of Ustad 

Mansur, who was awarded with the title Nadir-ul-'Asr, appears to be the same likeness.

The bird has been identified by Dr. Salim Ali as a Red-capped or Barbary falcon (Falco peregrius 

babylonicus), (not a Shaheen as mentioned in Lalit Kala, No. 18, 27-8, plate XII, fig.2).

The nagari inscription on top, Jahangir Patashah, refers to the portrait of Jahangir on the facing 

page, while the words bahari and uttam mean, a 'falcon' and 'excellent'.

A page of Bird and Animal Drawings

Unsigned.

c. 1675-1700.

According to the Persian inscriptions written on the painting the top figure is of a yellow parrot 

brought from Beragarh in the fauzdari of Kalinjar, followed by (clockwise) a white (albino) crow 

bought from a fakir in the fauzdari of Chackle Dariabad, a pair of partridges found in the hilly 

areas of Kalinjar, a pair of Tibetan goat, from which pashmina wool is obtained, brought from 

Kashmir and a "Do-baz" crow brought from Orissa by an official of the Shikarkhana (hunting 

department).

Dr. Salim Ali has very kindly identified the birds as (from top clockwise) Large Indian or 

Axexandrine Parakeet (Psittacula eupatria) in the yellow or 'lutino' phase, an albino House Crow 

(Corbus splendens), male and female painted spurfowl (Galloperdix lunulata) and a partial albino 

House Crow.

A Cassowary

Unsigned.

c. 1675-1700

According to a Persian inscription on the top and its Nagari rendering at the bottom, this flightless 

Ostrich-like bird known as Cassowary (Casuaris sp.) was brought from the port of Surat for sixty 

rupees. It also mentions that the bird lays about 12 khaki colour eggs every year from which 

huqqa-base, etc. are made. Its Hindi name is written as Kharasmurg.

Dr. Salim Ali's comment on this painting: "It is a Cassowary (Casuarius sp.) - a flightless Ostrich-

like bird of the Australian region. Below it is what purports to be its egg. The likeness of the bird 

is passable, but its feet are terrible!"

-ASOK KUMAR DAS