In the early Mughal painting Princes of the House of Timur (1545–50), portraits of which Mughal rulers were painted over the original ones?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan
Option (1) Jahangir, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb — Incorrect. Aurangzeb is not among them. The added portraits end with Shah Jahan.
Option (2) Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan — Correct. The portraits of Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan were painted over those made in Humayun’s reign.
Option (3) Humayun, Akbar and Jahangir — Incorrect. The original portraits were painted during the reign of Humayun. Humayun is not one of the rulers added later.
Option (4) Muhammad Shah Rangila, Shah Alam II and Bahadur Shah Zafar — Incorrect. These rulers came at the close of the Mughal style, when the few masterworks made were mere last flickers of it. They do not appear in this painting.
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): “The Mughal School of Miniature 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.” |