House of Bijapur

This image from Bijapur made for the last of its rulers, Sikandar (reigned 1672–86), shown here as a young boy soon before the kingdom’s fall to Mughal conquerors in 1686, brings together all nine ‘Adil Shahi sultans in a dynastic assembly likely inspired by Mughal paintings illustrating the same idea. The artists Kamal Muhammad and Chand Muhammad here incorporated the characteristic features of the Bijapur school of the period: great shifts of view, varying use of perspective, and a palette rich in a distinctive pink hue. An otherworldly mood is conveyed partly by illogical juxtapositions, such as the stairs leading up to the carpet with no supporting architectural elements or the soaring mountains of Safavid inspiration in the background. Distant views of water hint at Bijapur’s former vastness, which at its greatest extent stretched to include Goa on the Arabian Sea.

This painting would have the viewer believe that the key of legitimacy—being handed over by Isma’il (reigned 1501–24), founder of the Safavid dynasty (1501–1722) of Iran (here erroneously identified as Shah ‘Abbas in a later inscription), to Yusuf (reigned 1490–1510), founder of the Bijapur dynasty—symbolizes the unwavering allegiance of the ‘Adil Shahi family to the Shi‘a creed. However, Bijapur in its golden period under the freethinking Ibrahim II (reigned 1580–1627, third from the right) witnessed the open embrace of Hinduism and Sufism as well as the formalization of Sunnism as the state religion in 1583, which lasted until the end of his tenure.

Certain historicizing details in the composition acknowledge the two-hundred-year span of the family. The early rulers on the left wear dagger hilts—straight, split-end West Asian and curving double-leaf South Indian—of a style earlier than the punch dagger (katars) in the belts of the later rulers on the right. Local tastes are seen in the swirling blue carpet and flat ceremonial umbrellas also found in early Andhra sculpture. Like many other painters of the Deccan, Kamal Muhammad and Chand Muhammad remain fairly unknown, with very few attested works.[1] Several later versions of the present Bijapur dynastic work, which was formerly in the Kevork Essayan Collection, Paris, are known, including one made for the Italian physician Niccolo Manucci.[2]

Navina Najat Haidar in [Haidar and Sardar 2015]

Footnotes:

1- Baptiste, Fitzroy Andre, John McLeod, and Kenneth X. Robbins. "Africans in the Medieval Deccan", in Kenneth X. Robbins and John McLeod, eds. African Elites in India: Habshi Amarat. Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing; Ocean Township, NJ., 2006, pp. 30–43, fig. 26.

2- Manucci Album, Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris, Estampes (Res. Od 45 pet. fol.); Manucci, Niccolo, Storia do Mogor; or, Mogal India, 1653–1708. Translated and edited by William Irvine 1907, vol. 3, pl. XXXIV. Indian Text Series. London. The author is grateful to Marta Becherini for her assistance with the Manucci Album. For other later versions of the painting, see Taylor, Meadows, and James Fergusson Architecture at Beejapoor, an Ancient Mahometan Capital in the Bombay Presidency. Published for the Committee of Architectural Antiquities of Western India under the Patronage of Kursondas Madhowdas. London: John Murray, 1866, frontispiece; Strzygowski, Josef, Ed., Asiatische Miniaturenmalerei im Anschluss an Wesen und Werden der Mogulmalerei, with contributions by Heinrich Gluck, Stella Kramrisch, and Emmy Wellesz. Arbeiten des I. Kunsthistorischen Institutes der Universitat Wien (Lehrkanzel Strzygowski) 50. Klagenfurt Kollitsch, 1933, pp. 42–43, fig. 37 (abbreviated version of the painting now in the Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna); Duda, Dorothea, Islamische Handschriften. Vol. 1, Persische Handschriften. 2 vols. Vienna: Verlag der Osterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1983, p. 266, fol. 20, fig. 458; Sotheby’s, Fine Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures. Sale cat. Sotheby’s, London, November 21–22, 1985, lot 71 (copy of ca. 1750).


The House of Bijapur

Bijapuri painting neared the end with a flourish in this miniature which both sums up the dynasty politically and harks back stylistically to the glory of Ibrahim 'Adil-Shah II. Apparently a famous subject, of which several later versions are known, this large miniature was painted for the last Bijapur sultan, Iskandar 'Adil-Shah, who came to the throne when he was four years old after his father's early death in 1672. He grew up under the control of a succession of squabbling regents, always threatened by the Mughals and the Marathas. Brave, determined, and precocious, he took over the reins of government while very young, and cleverly pitted his enemies one against the other. But on the death in 1680 of his fickle ally, the Maratha leader Shivaji, the cause of Bijapur became hopeless. In 1686 the eighteen-year-old sultan was captured by the Mughals, who annexed Bijapur. Iskandar's last fourteen years were spent imprisoned in Daulatabad Fort. After his death his corpse was returned to Bijapur, where he was remembered with tearful reverence. He was buried tombless in a garden—now a public park—beneath a simple cenotaph.

In this group portrait of the house of Bijapur, showing the dynasty from beginning to end, Iskandar is the dark-skinned twelve-year-old boy at the right, seated beside his father, Sultan 'Ali. In this painted curtain call, all of Iskandar's line are reassembled, nobly and characteristically attired and enthroned on a magnificent floral carpet. On the horizon, beyond the landscape painted in the style of 1590, the Arabian Sea reminds us that proud, dismembered Bijapur once included Goa.[1]

[Welch 1985]

Footnotes:

1. For later versions of this picture, see Taylor, Meadows. Architecture at Beejapore.London, 1866, frontispiece; Strzygowski, ]. ; Kramrisch, Stella; and Wellesz, Emmy. Asiatische Miniaturmalerei. Klagenfurt, 1933, p. 42, fig. 37, pl. 13; Manucci, Niccolao. Storia do Mogor, 4 vols. Trans. William Irvine. London, 1907, vol. 3, pl. XXXIV.


The House of Bijapur

This image from Bijapur was made for the last of its rulers, Sikandar (r. 1672–86), shown at the far right as a boy, shortly before the fall of the kingdom to Mughal conquerors in 1686. It brings together all nine ‘Adil Shahi sultans in a dynastic assembly that was probably inspired by Mughal paintings illustrating the same idea. The artists, Kamal Muhammad and Chand Muhammad, incorporated the characteristic features of the Bijapur School in this period: great shifts in scale, varying perspectives, and a palette rich in a distinctive pink hue.[1] An "otherworldly" mood (a term often used to characterize Deccani painting) is conveyed by inventive and sometimes illogical juxtapositions, such as the stairs leading up to the carpet with no supporting architectural elements and the soaring mountains of Safavid inspiration in the background. Distant views of water hint at Bijapur’s former vastness; at its greatest extent, the kingdom stretched to the Arabian Sea and Goa, a coastal city that was contested several times with the Portuguese over the course of the sixteenth century.

This painting would have the viewer believe that the key of legitimacy, being handed over by Isma‘il (r. 1501–24), founder of the Safavid dynasty of Iran (here erroneously identified as Shah ‘Abbas in a later inscription), to Yusuf (r. 1489–1510), founder of the Bijapur dynasty, symbolizes the unwavering allegiance of the ‘Adil Shahi family to the Shi‘i creed. However, Bijapur in its golden period was ruled by Ibrahim II (r. 1579–1626; shown seated third from the right), a self-professed freethinker, whose tolerance of Hinduism and sufism, as well as his formalization of Sunnism as the state religion in 1583, deviated from established tradition.

Certain historicizing details in the composition acknowledge the two-hundred-year span of the family. Two of the early rulers on the left wear hilted daggers—straight split-end western Asian and curving double-leaf South Indian—of an earlier style than the push daggers (katars) seen in the belts of the later rulers on the right. Local tastes are seen in the swirling blue carpet and the style of the flat ceremonial umbrellas, which are similar to those found in early Andhra sculpture.[2] Like most painters who were active in the Deccan, Kamal Muhammad and Chand Muhammad remain relatively unknown, with very few attested works, although collaborations such as theirs in the present work are seen elsewhere in Bijapur painting and were standard in Mughal painting.[3] The several later versions of this image that have made their way into notable collections and books illustrate its lasting significance.[4]

Navina Haidar in [Ekhtiar, Soucek, Canby, and Haidar 2011]

Footnotes:

1. The Safavid artist Mu‘in Musavvir (active ca. 1638–97) also used this color in his work.

2. New scholarship on Deccani carpets is forthcoming: see Cohen, Steven. “Deccani Carpets: Creating a Corpus.” In Haidar, Navina Najat, and Marika Sardar, eds. Sultans of the South: The Arts of India’s Deccan Courts, 1323–1687. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Symposia. New York, 2011. See also “Flowers on Floats: The Production, Circulation, and Reception of Early Modern Indian Carpets.” Ph.D. dissertation by Yumiko Kamada at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Thanks to Kurt Behrendt of the Metropolitan Museum’s Department of Asian Art for information on the early sculpture of the region.

3. Robbins, Kenneth X., and John McLeod, eds. African Elites in India: Habshi Amarat. Ahmedabad, 2006, p. 34, no. 26; Falk, Toby, and Mildred Archer. Indian Miniatures in the India Office Library. London, 1981, no. 404, illustrates a portrait of Ikhlas Khan signed by Chand Muhammad in a similar, though less accomplished, hand. See also, ibid., p. 114, no. 101, illustrating a painting signed by Haidar ‘Ali and Muhammad Khan, another example of a collaboration between painters.

4. Later versions include Sotheby’s London, Fine Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures, November 21 and 22, 1985, lot 71 (a copy of the MMA painting dated ca. 1750). See also Strzygowski, Josef, et al. Asiatische Miniaturenmalerei im Anschluss an Wesen und Werden der Mogulmalerei. Arbeiten des I. Kunsthistorischen Institutes der Universität Wien (Lehrkanzel Strzygowski), 50. Klagenfurt, 1933, pp. 42–43, fig. 37 (later, abbreviated version of the MMA painting, now in the Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna); Duda, Dorothea. Islamische Handschriften. Vol. 1. Persische Handschriften. Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Schrift- und Buchwesen des Mittelalters.
Ser. 1, Die Illuminierten Handschriften und Inkunabeln der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek, 4. Vienna, 1983, p. 266, fol. 20, fig. 458; Taylor, Meadows. Architecture at Beejapore. London, 1866. (frontispiece, later version of the MMA painting); Manucci, Niccolao. Storia do Mogor. Translated and annotated by William Irvine. London, 1906–8, vol. 3, pl. 34.


The House of Bijapur

From 1570 to 1685 Bijapur was the most important center of painting in the Deccan. It was one of the last of the Deccani kingdoms to fall to the Mughals. Aurangzeb captured the city in 1686 and destroyed most of the royal painting collection.[1] This marvelous painting shows the lineage of the house of Bijapur, including the reigning sultan, gathered in a historically impossible assemblage. The color scheme, with its dominant use of mauve and gold as a foil to brilliant blues, reds, yellows, warm browns, and soft greens, imparts to the picture an otherworldly opulence. These colors are typical of Deccani painting. Although the careful modeling of the faces and the deep landscape show a relationship to naturalistic Mughal models, the fantastic coloration clearly departs from concerns of naturalism, as does the emphatic use of large-scale pattern, especially evident in the strong arabesques of the carpet.

Steven M. Kossak in [Kossak 1997]

Footnotes:

1. Zebrowski, Mark, Deccani Painting. London, 1983, pp. 150, 152.

Inscription: Inscribed in Persian in naskhi script along upper border:
شاه عباس پادشاه ایران
Shah ‘Abbas King of Iran

Inscribed in Persian in naskhi script vertically near left-hand frame:
عمل کمال محمد و چاند محمد
Work of Kamal Muhammad and Chand Muhammad

(Translation from "Masterpieces from the Department of Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art," 2011, p. 380).

Kevork Essayan, Paris(until d. 1980; his estate sale, Nouveau Drouot,Paris, June 24, 1982, lot 67, to John R. Alderman for MMA)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "INDIA !," September 14–September 14, 1985, no. 208.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Art of the Deccani Sultans," March 21–August 25, 1996.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Indian Court Painting: 16th–19th Century," March 25–July 6, 1997, no. 36.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Sultans of Deccan India, 1500–1700: Opulence and Fantasy," April 20–July 26, 2015, no. 71.

Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin vol. 40 (1982–1983). pp. 12, 14–15, ill. (color).

"Miniatures Mogholes et Indiennes du XVIe au XIXe Siècle." In Miniatures Orientales. Paris: Nouveau Drouot, Paris, 1982. no. 67, pp. 66–67, ill. (color).

Zebrowski, Mark. Deccani Painting. Berkeley, CA: Sotheby Publications, 1983. no. 118a, pp. 145, 150, ill. pl. XVII (color).

Welch, Stuart Cary. India: Art and Culture 1300–1900. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1985. no. 208, pp. 310–11, ill. p. 311 (b/w).

Welch, Stuart Cary. The Islamic World. vol. 11. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987. pp. 158–59, ill. fig. 121 (color).

Kossak, Steven M., ed. Indian Court Painting 16th–19th century. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997. no. 36, pp. 68–69, ill. pl. 36 (color).

Ekhtiar, Maryam, Priscilla P. Soucek, Sheila R. Canby, and Navina Haidar, ed. Masterpieces from the Department of Islamic Art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1st ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011. no. 269, pp. 341, 380–81, ill. p. 381 (color).

Haidar, Navina, and Marika Sardar. "The Metropolitan Museum of Art Symposia." In Sultans of the South: Art of India's Deccan Courts. Brugge, Belgium: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011. ill. front cover.

Lefevre, Corinne. Les Arts Moghols. Paris: Editions Citadelles, 2024. p. 118, ill. fig.106.

Haidar, Navina, and Marika Sardar. "Opulence and Fantasy." In Sultans of Deccan India 1500–1700. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2015. no. 71, pp. 154–55, ill. (color).