What was the format of the paintings of the Hamza Nama, the project begun by Humayun and continued by Akbar?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Large-sized folios
Option (1) Small-sized folios — Incorrect. The Hamza Nama folios were large, not small, because of the way they were used.
Option (2) Large-sized folios — Correct. The folios were held up for a clear view while a narrator read the stories aloud to Akbar, so their format is large.
Option (3) Small album pages (muraqqas) — Incorrect. Muraqqas were individual paintings mounted in albums, linked with Jahangir’s atelier, not the Hamza Nama.
Option (4) Long horizontal scrolls — Incorrect. The Hamza Nama paintings are folios of cloth with paper at the back, not scrolls.
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): “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.” |