Akbar continued his father’s Hamza Nama project. Given below are two…

Akbar continued his father’s Hamza Nama project. Given below are two statements: one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other is labelled as Reason (R).

Assertion (A): The paintings of the Hamza Nama are large in format.

Reason (R): The stories of Hamza were read out aloud to Akbar by a professional narrator while the corresponding painted folios were held up for a clear view.

In the light of the above statements, choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below:

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 1

The correct answer is Option (1) → Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A).

Assertion (A): The paintings of the Hamza Nama are large in format. — True. The Hamza Nama paintings were made in a large format because of the special use they were put to.

Reason (R): The stories of Hamza were read out aloud to Akbar by a professional narrator while the corresponding painted folios were held up for a clear view. — True. Akbar enjoyed hearing these stories from a professional narrator, and the painted folios were held for a clear view at the same time.

Why R explains A? The folios were shown to the emperor while the story was being read. So each painting had to be big enough to be seen well, and this is the reason for their large format. The narrative text was even written on the paper at the back to help the narrator.

NCERT (2026-27): “Early Mughal Painting …Akbar took delight in hearing the stories of Hamza, a character much loved in the Middle East popular and intellectual circles, which were read out aloud by a professional narrator. Simultaneously, the corresponding folios and painted Hamza Nama narrative was held for a clear view. The emperor took great interest in both pictorial narrative, as well as, recitation of Hamza Nama. Because of the peculiar function of these paintings, their format is large. The base surface is cloth with paper at the back, on which the narrative text is written to help the narrator and the technique applied is gouache, which is water-based and in opaque colours.”