Mughal book painting followed a set process. Arrange the following stages of this process in the correct order:
(A) The artist painted the portraits (chiharanama).
(B) The pages were ruled and filled with text.
(C) The artist made the composition (tarh).
(D) Designated space was left on the cut sheets for the visual composition.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → (D), (B), (C), (A)
(D) Designated space was left on the cut sheets for the visual composition. — First. The handmade paper was cut to the size of the manuscript, with space left for the artist.
(B) The pages were ruled and filled with text. — Second. The text was written before the page went to the artist.
(C) The artist made the composition (tarh). — Third. The artist began with the composition.
(A) The artist painted the portraits (chiharanama). — Fourth. Portraits came after the tarh; only the final colouring (rangamizi) came later.
NCERT (2026-27): “Process of Mughal Painting …For making book painting, the following process was adopted. Sheets of handmade paper were prepared and cut to suit the size of the manuscript. Designated space was left for the artist to fill it with a suitable visual composition. Then, the pages were ruled and filled with text. Once the text was written, it was given to the artist, who would compose a synoptic visual representation of the text. The artist would begin from the stage of making the composition, i.e., tarh, to portraits, i.e., chiharanama to the final stage of colouring, i.e., rangamizi.” |