08-29-2008, 05:01 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-Ishwa+Aug 28 2008, 04:12 PM-->QUOTE(Ishwa @ Aug 28 2008, 04:12 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->There is a painting preserved in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, reproduced in the Illustrated Weekly of India (page 32) of March 14, 1971. Shahjahan ascended the throne in 1628 A.D. This contemporary painting shows him receiving the Persian ambassador in ca. 1628 (!) itself, in the Diwan-i-Aam of the Red Fort. If true, how can Shahjahan receive a Persian ambassador in the Diwan-I Am in Shahjahanabad Red Fort in ca. 1628, if that city was supposed to have been built in the 1640s? Why was this information, correct or not, added to the painting?Â
Retrieved from: http://www.stephen-knapp.com/red_fort_photo_two.htm
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This painting retrieved from: http://www.stephen-knapp.com/red_fort_photo_two.htm
must be the same as:
Shelfmark and folio: MS. Ous. Add. 173, fol. 13v
Description: Shahjahan receiving the Persian embassy of 1628. [caption title] No. 13. Jehangir Padshah [caption on page]
Dimensions: 345 x 238 mm. ; Materials: opaque watercolour on paper.
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/csb/orientalmss...t.htm#DouceOra1
At this site, one can see the painting in colour, but without the remarks above:
http://www2.odl.ox.ac.uk/gsdl/cgi-bin/libr...d=orient002-ars
Title: [Shahjahan receives a Persian ambassador. 'No. 13. Jehangir Padshah' [caption on page]]
Description: Miniature painting, from an album of Indian paintings principally devoted to portraits of the Mughal emperors.
Date: 1640
Artist: Payag
Abstract: Court scene with imperial portraits. Mughal style, 17th century, c. 1640.
Note: References: Cat. Persian [etc.] Mss. in the Bodleian Library, 1899; Ebba Koch, Mughal art (2001), fig. 4.64; Binyon (1921), plate XXXVI, captioned 'Reception of an embassy by Aurangzib'; Topsfield (2007), 33.
Note: References: Cat. Persian [etc.] Mss. in the Bodleian Library, 2384;
Shahjahanabad was started to be built in 1639. Chandarbhan Brahman composed a verse in 1648 to commemorate the inauguration of the imperial palace-fortress. This verse is preserved on the âChar Chaman Brahmanâ, Persian Manuscript Collection, Or. 1892, British Museum, London, fols.141-2. [Peter. P. Blake: Shahjahanabad, p.ix]
Shahjahan transferred his capital from Agra to Delhi in 1648! That is the time of the inauguration with the verse by court noble Chandarbhan commemorating that. Which means that in 1639 the building activities were started and going on upto 1648, and no building should even have been there in 1640. It takes time to plan, contract workers, lay a foundation, etc.
But even if the painting information after giving the date of 1628, provides a second date of 1640, it is still 8 years too early! Official foreign ambassadors will never be received in an Diwan yet to progress in building in a dirty complex of unfinished, unprotectable buildings with workers making noise, etc.
Some fishy claims.
Retrieved from: http://www.stephen-knapp.com/red_fort_photo_two.htm
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This painting retrieved from: http://www.stephen-knapp.com/red_fort_photo_two.htm
must be the same as:
Shelfmark and folio: MS. Ous. Add. 173, fol. 13v
Description: Shahjahan receiving the Persian embassy of 1628. [caption title] No. 13. Jehangir Padshah [caption on page]
Dimensions: 345 x 238 mm. ; Materials: opaque watercolour on paper.
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/csb/orientalmss...t.htm#DouceOra1
At this site, one can see the painting in colour, but without the remarks above:
http://www2.odl.ox.ac.uk/gsdl/cgi-bin/libr...d=orient002-ars
Title: [Shahjahan receives a Persian ambassador. 'No. 13. Jehangir Padshah' [caption on page]]
Description: Miniature painting, from an album of Indian paintings principally devoted to portraits of the Mughal emperors.
Date: 1640
Artist: Payag
Abstract: Court scene with imperial portraits. Mughal style, 17th century, c. 1640.
Note: References: Cat. Persian [etc.] Mss. in the Bodleian Library, 1899; Ebba Koch, Mughal art (2001), fig. 4.64; Binyon (1921), plate XXXVI, captioned 'Reception of an embassy by Aurangzib'; Topsfield (2007), 33.
Note: References: Cat. Persian [etc.] Mss. in the Bodleian Library, 2384;
Shahjahanabad was started to be built in 1639. Chandarbhan Brahman composed a verse in 1648 to commemorate the inauguration of the imperial palace-fortress. This verse is preserved on the âChar Chaman Brahmanâ, Persian Manuscript Collection, Or. 1892, British Museum, London, fols.141-2. [Peter. P. Blake: Shahjahanabad, p.ix]
Shahjahan transferred his capital from Agra to Delhi in 1648! That is the time of the inauguration with the verse by court noble Chandarbhan commemorating that. Which means that in 1639 the building activities were started and going on upto 1648, and no building should even have been there in 1640. It takes time to plan, contract workers, lay a foundation, etc.
But even if the painting information after giving the date of 1628, provides a second date of 1640, it is still 8 years too early! Official foreign ambassadors will never be received in an Diwan yet to progress in building in a dirty complex of unfinished, unprotectable buildings with workers making noise, etc.
Some fishy claims.