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BOOKS
Seeking Orpheus In Agra
How European ideas and imagery influenced Mughal
monarchs and their art
By B.N. Goswamy
There are two ways
in which a substantial work such as this, Ebba Koch's collected essays
on a visibly coherent theme, can be approached. One can simply enter with
her the world of Mughal art and ideology-European assumptions and all-page
after page awash in dense detail, images swiftly flitting by, facts marshalled
with Germanic thoroughness. Or, if so inclined, one can step into the
arena of argument, address issues arising from the same plethora of detail
and keep raising questions about her assumptions, emphasis, selection.
But the danger is that one might quickly lose one's way in either thicket.
It is necessary, therefore, to keep reminding oneself that there is more
to art and art history than facts. And that the "inner meanings"
of works of art-the phrase, frequently cited by Koch, is Abul Fazl's-do
not all reside in concealed references to political ideology; they refer,
far more, to the state of mind they lead us to, the new worlds that they
are capable of throwing open.
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MUGHAL ART AND IMPERIAL IDEOLOGY
By Ebba Koch
Oxford
Price: Rs 1,295
Pages: 317
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Koch's scholarship
is impressive and her use of sources impeccable. In this collection of
closely argued essays, she leads us through a maze of fascinating detail,
pointing now towards the Jesuit influence on Mughal symbolism, peering
at another time at the angels hovering in the dome above Jehangir's head
in the Lahore fort. With equal energy, she traces the use of the baluster
column in Mughal architecture, scrutinises the unlikely pietra dura Orpheus
featured behind Shahjahan's throne in the Diwan-i-Am, analyses the hierarchical
principles in Padshahnama paintings. Along this journey, she introduces
us, among other things and people, to the Antwerp Polyglot Bible, Albrecht
Durer's engravings, Charles V's coat of arms, Austin of Bordeaux, the
Medici workshops of Florence. The point of much of this, of course, is
to establish the extent to which European ideas had penetrated the thinking
of Mughal monarchs and of their artists as they set about projecting the
imperial image.
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| ROYAL ELOQUENCE: (right)
Baswan and Chatar; Akbarnama c. 1590; from the Hamza Nama, c-1570. |
None of this European "presence" is
to be denied. And it's easy to ignore less than felicitous references
to Tansen as the "oriental Mozart" (Metcalfe's phrase) or to
a darkskinned, winged figure at Lahore as the "Hindu angel"
(Koch's description). What one needs to remember, however, is the fact
that in that rich and textured age where ideas were streaming in from
everywhere, of importance is what Mughal artists made of those ideas.
What one might seriously question, at the same time, is the emphasis,
the over-reading in Koch's "reconstructions".
Take her spirited discussions of the Orpheus
panel in the Diwan-i-Am. This handsome, European figure of myth sits under
a tree playing music, different animals edging close to him as if listening.
Elaborately, Koch takes us through a range of arguments and speculations
to explain this, referring now to Solomon, now to David, establishing
finally that the panel "was clearly chosen to support the Solomonic
symbolism" of the throne, the image of amity between wild animals
mirroring the nature of Shahjahan's just rule. But then, curiously, she
also adds, a page later, that "so far there is no evidence that Shahjahan
and his artistic advisers were aware of the role Orpheus played in the
western tradition".
Where does this leave us? If the emperor did
not know much about Orpheus, who from among his subjects was likely to
understand this "symbol" or be impressed by it? Again, take
Koch's enigmatic observation that European forms were preferred by Mughal
patrons because they "represented a medium in which both Muslim and
Hindu traditions could be expressed in a neutral way". And then she
goes on to a footnote, saying that this is comparable to a modern phenomenon:
that "in polite conversations between muslims and hindus ... Hindus
will avoid Sanskritised expressions and Muslims Arabic or Persian words,
and both will use English terms instead". Is this what it was all
about?
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