Jehangir preferring a Sufi Shaikh to Kings

In this very interesting allegorical work, a subject of many interpretations, Jahangir is seen offering a book to Shaikh Husain of the Chishti Shrine, a spiritual descendant of Shaikh Salim, to whom Akbar had gone in the hope of an heir. The prayer was answered, and at birth the prince, later Jahangir, was named Salim in honour of the saint. The principal inscription of the painting tells us that even though Shahs and Kings stand before the Mughal Badshah, he fixes his gaze on the Sufi Sheikh who enjoys precedence before anyone else. Almost a lifetime after Akbar’s prayer, this painting was made and Jahangir was shown sitting on an hourglass throne. As Jehangir sat on the throne, the sand of time and life flows by. An inscription on the hourglass, reads as a prayer by the young angels/cherubs/puttis who are seen engraving its base, “Allah is great. O Shah may the span of your reign be a thousand years”. Despite this inscription it is hard to ignore the hourglass running out of the sands of time. The other figures seen in the painting are the Ottoman Sultan, King James I of England, who had contacted Jahangir through his ambassador Sir Thomas Roe (copied from an English of the King presented to the Mughal court). The last figure in the painting, included in this royal array, is the artist of the painting Bichitr himself. He wears a red turban, showing himself to be a Hindu in the Muslim court, and presents a miniature to Jahangir. It is one of the rare paintings from India where we see the artist sharing space with the Badshah. The Mughals of the time being a progressive lot had elevated the status of artists who now enjoyed a premier place in the court. It was the time when Jahangirnama or Tuzk-i-Jehangiri was also being written. Bichitr, a brilliant young student of the artist Abu'l Hasan who became one of Shah Jahan's leading court artists was a prolific and all-encompassing painter capable of capturing a vast spectrum of complex subjects and elements. He served under two great Emperors Jehangir and Shahjahan and perhaps even under Alamgir. Influenced by his studies of European artworks, Bichtir incorporated figures with shadows, Western perspective, and putti (cherubs or angels) into his work. His technically refined portraiture and ability to render hands won him the respect of the Emperors. As a portraitist and a commemorator of great occasions, Bichitr’s cold perfectionism and brilliant shadow techniques are a magnificent reflection of his own place and time, despite his strong European influences.

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