Princes of the House of Timur is an early Mughal painting. Consider the following statements about it.
(A) It is probably the work of the Safavid artist Abd us Samad.
(B) It is painted in opaque watercolour on paper.
(C) It was a prized possession of the imperial family.
(D) Portraits of later members of the Mughal dynasty were painted over the original portraits.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → (A), (C) and (D) only
(A) It is probably the work of the Safavid artist Abd us Samad. — Correct. The painting is ascribed, probably, to Abd us Samad, a Safavid artist.
(B) It is painted in opaque watercolour on paper. — Incorrect. It is painted in opaque watercolour on cotton, not on paper.
(C) It was a prized possession of the imperial family. — Correct. The painting was a prized possession of the imperial family.
(D) Portraits of later members of the Mughal dynasty were painted over the original portraits. — Correct. Portraits of Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan were painted over those made in Humayun’s reign, to record each new member of the dynasty.
Note: This topic was not named in the CUET 2026 syllabus, but it was part of the NCERT chapter. In 2025 and 2026, NTA also asked questions on topics in NCERT that the CUET syllabus did not name. So our mocks have questions from every part of the NCERT chapter, to give you enough practice. Read the whole chapter, not only the sub-topics named in the syllabus.
NCERT (2026-27): “Early Mughal Painting …When we look at an extraordinary Mughal painting from the early period, Princes of the House of Timur (1545–50), probably by Safavid artist, Abd us Samad, in opaque watercolour on cotton, we are surprised by its size and complex structure and display of historical portraits. A prized possession of the imperial family, it has portraits that were painted over the original to register the portraits of successive members of the Mughal dynasty. So, visible in their physical likeness are portraits of Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan painted subsequently over those painted during the reign of Humayun.” |