Observe the image and answer the following question.
In the painting in the image, what is the source of the rich intricate patterns on the floor, columns and canopy?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Persian sources
Option (1) European sources — Incorrect. European influence shows in paintings made from the time the Europeans were in contact with Akbar’s court, as a growing naturalism. The patterns here are not traced to them.
Option (2) Indian sources — Incorrect. In this painting, the trees and creepers and the palette of pure yellows, reds and browns show the Indian source, not the patterns.
Option (3) Byzantine sources — Incorrect. Byzantine art comes in with the theme of the Madonna in Madonna and Child, not in this Hamza Nama painting.
Option (4) Persian sources — Correct. The patterns on the floor, columns and canopy, as also the four-limbed animals and rocks, are from Persian sources.
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 …In Hamza Nama painting, Spies Attack the City of Kaymar (1567–82), the space is sharply cut and divided so as to facilitate visual reading of the narrative. …The rich intricate patterns on the floor, columns and canopy are from Persian sources as also the four-limbed animals and rocks. Trees and creepers indicate Indian source as also the rich palette of pure yellows, reds and browns.”
Spies of Hamza attack the City of Kaymar, 1567–1582, Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna |
