The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

THE
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HINDU RENAISSANCE
for his patronage of art but for his insatiable
zest for women, a taste which led to his establishing
a 'city of women' staffed by 15,000
comely girls from all parts of India, Khorasan,
and Bokhara. In addition to pursuing his hobby
for Persian girls, Ghiyas-ud-din and his successor,
Nasir-ud-din, also maintained cultural
affiliations with Iran, and Persian artists undoubtedly
contributed a Turcoman reflexion of
the Shiraz style to the famous manuscript, the
Nimatndma, or 'Book of Delicacies', an illuminated
compilation of the ruler's favourite
recipes [277]. Such elements as the formalized
blossoms, the dress of some of the women, and
the abstract beauty of colour are Persian, but
the jewellery and vessels, the types of feminine
beauty with large eyes, and the stiff, angular
veils are Indian in character. As will be noted,
the predominantly Persian traits of this style
were absorbed into the later traditions of Indian
painting in Malwa and the Deccan.
It is an easy step from the style of these
pictures to a group of miniatures painted in
Malwa in the first half of the seventeenth
century. We may choose as an example of this
manner an illustration of the Vibhdsa Rdgini,
in which we see Kama Deva loosing an arrow at
the cock whose crowing announces the end
of love's dalliance [278]. This represents the
purest style of Rajput painting. The aim of
the illustrator is the most direct and legible
presentation of the theme, with little thought
for any graces of draughtsmanship or composition.
The treatment, again, could be described
as conceptual or popular. The figures and the
architecture of the bower are presented as
i~T
277. The Sultan refreshed with a Sherbet in the
Nimatndma from Mandu. London, India Office Library
278. Kama Deva in the Vibhdsa Rdgini from Malwa.
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts