Mughal Paintings From British Library

 Muharram festival, 1830-1840 (British Library Add.Or. 401)

 Nawab Muhammad ‘Abd ul-Rahman Khan of Jhajjar entertained by members of the Delhi kalāwant lineage, 1849 (British Library Add.Or. 4680)

 Left:  Sultan Ghiyas al-Din seated on his throne and right: Cows being milked (British Library IO Islamic 149)

 Life in the Indian Police, by C.E Gouldsbury (London, 1912), p. 42  (British Library T 9029)  

 Fig. 4. As well as being melodic frameworks for musical performance, the rāgas were personified and visualised as heroes, heroines, deities, jogis, and other beings with emotional and supernatural powers. Ragini Asavari. Javāhir al-Mūsīqāt-i Muḥammadī (British Library

 ‘The Jharna or Waterfall at the Qutub’ from Sir Thomas Metcalfe’s 'Reminiscences of Imperial Delhi,' 1842-44 (British Library, Add.Or.5475 )

 Laylā and Majnūn at school from the story of Laylā u Majnūn in Nizāmī’s Khamsah. Painting ascribed to Mīrak and Bihzād, and to Qāsim ʻAlī in the text panel, c.1494. This manuscript, classed as one of the most precious manuscripts in the imperial Mughal library (see my earlier blog ‘A Jewel in the Crown’), was acquired by Richard Johnson in December 1782. He must, however, have sold it separately from the rest of his collection since the British Museum purchased it from a dealer over 100 years later in 1908 (BL Or.6810, f.106v).

 Richard Johnson’s bookplate inscribed in English and Persian with his name and Mughal titles: Mumtāz al-Dawlah Mufakhkhar al-Mulk Richārd Jānsan Bahādur Ḥusām Jang, 1194 ʻRichard Johnson chosen of the dynasty, exalted of the kingdom, sharp blade in war, 1780ʼ. Johnson was very proud of his titles which were granted by Shāh ʻĀlam in 1780 together with the rank (mansab) of 6,000 and insignia of a fish and two balls, a kettle-drum and fringed palankeen (BL IO Islamic 1518).

 Portrait, presumed to be of the poet Qamar al-Dīn Minnat, by an unknown artist. In Falk and Archer (details below) he has been mistakenly identified as Nizam ʻAlī Khān (BL Or.6633, f. 136r).

 The first and second of the “single hand” gestures as established in the Saṅgītaratnākara: patāka“flag” and tripatāka “three-finger flag” (British Library

 The first note of the scale, Sa (ṣadj), whose sound derives from the cry of the peacock, and its four microtones (śrutis) (British Library

 Rag Megh, the third rāga (British Library Or.12857, f. 112v)

 Dhanashri, the first rāginī of May Kaushik (British Library

 Portrait of Richard Johnson from a copy of Minnat’s Dīvān, painted by an unknown artist c. 1782. Thomas Arnold – he seems to have strongly disapproved of Johnson! – commented unfavourably on this portrait: “The artist has certainly made no attempt to flatter Mr. Richard Johnson, and his appearance does not inspire either admiration or respect.” All the same it is the only portrait we have of him, showing Johnson seated on a terrace in a formal garden, perhaps in Lucknow (BL Or.6633, f. 68r).

 Front board of Tipu Sultan’s personal Qur’an (British Library, IO Islamic 3562)

 The third type of the ād-sanj position (British Library

 Bangālī, the third rāginī of Rag Bhairav (British Library

 Deskar, the fourth rāginī of Megh (British Library

Asavari, the second rāginī of May Kaushik (British Library