Painting flourished at the Mughal court under Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan. Consider the following statements:
(A) Akbar took delight in hearing the stories of Hamza, which were read out aloud by a professional narrator.
(B) Jahangir employed Aqa Riza, a well-known Iranian painter, and his son Abul Hasan.
(C) In The Marriage Procession of Dara Shikoh, Shah Jahan rides a brown stallion.
(D) In the Hamza Nama, the text was written on paper at the back of the cloth, to help the narrator.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → (A), (B) and (D) only
(A) Akbar took delight in hearing the stories of Hamza, which were read out aloud by a professional narrator. — Correct. The stories were read aloud by a professional narrator while the painted folios were held up for view.
(B) Jahangir employed Aqa Riza, a well-known Iranian painter, and his son Abul Hasan. — Correct. Jahangir took on Aqa Riza and his son Abul Hasan to raise the finish of painting in his atelier.
(C) In The Marriage Procession of Dara Shikoh, Shah Jahan rides a brown stallion. — Incorrect. Shah Jahan rides a white horse. The brown stallion carries the bridegroom, Dara Shikoh.
(D) In the Hamza Nama, the text was written on paper at the back of the cloth, to help the narrator. — Correct. The base was cloth with paper at the back, and the text on that paper helped 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.” “Early Mughal Painting …Jahangir employed Aqa Riza, a well-known Iranian painter and his son Abul Hasan to achieve unparalleled sophistication in painting. Despite the formalised and established imperial atelier of Akbar, the keen patron in Jahangir rebelled to set his own atelier alongside his father’s.” “The Marriage Procession of Dara Shikoh This painting, a work by artist Haji Madni, belongs to the period of Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal in Agra. It is a portrayal of the marriage procession of Dara Shikoh, the eldest son of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. The Mughal prince is shown mounted on a brown stallion with the traditional sehra and is accompanied by his father, Shah Jahan, who has a resplendent nimbus around hid head, riding a white horse.” |