Synthesis and Symbiosis: Akbar S Aesthetic Vision for India

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SYNTHESIS AND SYMBIOSIS: AKBAR’S AESTHETIC VISION FOR INDIA

MARGARETRICHARDSON
GEORGEMASONUNIVERSITY

The conquest of the Mughals in 1526 began a period of profound change in the culture and politics of India. Not only did it mark the beginning of a more centralized, established Muslim rule, but it also ushered in a cultural renaissance of the arts, most particularly in painting. Combining Persian, indigenous and European elements, the Mughal painting style virtually dominated India for about the next 200 years and produced a change in aesthetic values, a new painting style, and an innovative way of perceiving and understanding the world.

One of the most influential and perceptive rulers of the Mughal Empire was Akbar (r. 1556-1605). Solidifying Mughal control in Northern India by 1572, he was then able to focus on the creation of a new culture and a new way of thinking about art and the world. As the patron of the arts, Akbar established an unprecedented imperial atelier that was engaged in the production of sumptuous manuscript illuminations that illustrated court life, hunting and battle scenes, flora and fauna, portraits, history painting, and religious and cultural works. His evolution as both a ruler and a person was crucial to the development of Mughal painting. It was his charismatic, curious nature that brought about more tolerance and exchange between Hindus and Muslims, opened India to more profound European aesthetics, set the foundations for a modern India, and established the values and vocabulary, with the help of his courtiers and painters, of the new Mughal painting style.

The abundant literature on Mughal painting is rich in historical documentation and biographical information of the ruler-patrons like Akbar. Numerous catalogs and general histories explain this art form, often to a Western audience. The secular Mughal paintings that record courtly life and the exploits of imperial leaders are more comparable to the Western naturalistic aesthetic as well as Western painting genres such as history painting and portraiture. However, works that relate Hindu themes and concepts, foreign to the average Western viewer and distinct from Judeo-Christian and Islamic iconography, seem less accessible.

After reviewing the major literature on Mughal painting, it is this visual accessibility that has tended to limit the interpretation and appreciation of Mughal painting to its content and context. Some historianshave focused ondating the works properly and identifying the artists of these works. Others compare the Mughal style to its sometimes more indigenous counterpart Rajput painting, a distinction which tends to ignore the many connections and interrelationship of the two. For many scholars, the paintings are simple artifacts and historical documents. These studies emphasize how the paintings represent the time period and imperial patrons.[1]In these texts, Akbar and the Mughal Empire as a whole are often aggrandized to emphasize the profound impact of the Mughal Empire in Indian history. By focusing on the evolution of the superior Mughal painting style as their primary foci, these authors assume the ruler-patron’s desires are supreme and are the sole reflections of the world. The paintings thus indicate reflections of a worldview and they support it and are part of it. As a result, they are less a product of the world and times and dismissed as mere artifact and documentation.Ultimately, these sources provide invaluable collections of historical facts and dating confirmations, yet they often stop short of specifically relating this information to the actual paintings. The focus on the patron and history diminishes the works’ overall power as art.

While there is much discussion of subject matter and general characteristics, a close formal examination of specific paintings in relation to Akbar’s political and personal agenda is lacking. In light of this predicament, this paper will explore two issues: first, it will investigate the political, philosophical, and personal motivations behind Akbar’s interest in Hinduism. In this section, the discourse of kingship and power in the Mughal court will be addressed as well as Akbar’s philosophical and religious curiosity. Secondly, this paper will relate these findings to specific paintings from various Imperial and Sub-Imperial manuscripts in the collection of The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.[2] By examining the visual vocabulary of the paintings themselves, their original purpose as educational, political, and power tools is revealed. Much more than mere historical documents, the paintings are dynamic and profound expressions of power and synthesis. They were more directly involved in Akbar’s political program of control, organization, and stability that sought to unite Hindus and Muslims by promoting understanding and social harmony. Thus, they are not simply evidence of history and context but products and producers of discourse.

Akbar’s interest in and acceptance of Hinduism has been well documented in much of the literature, including contemporary chronicles. These studies generally relate Akbar’s interests to the translation and illustration of ancient Sanskrit texts in the 1580s and 1590s such as the Bhagavad Gita (Song of the Lord), Harivamsa (Genealogy of Krishna), Yogavasistha (an exposition of Vendanta philosophy), and the epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.[3] In addition, the political and philosophical motivations behind his interest have also been explored.[4] The translation of these Sanskrit texts is a point of departure for the discussion of Akbar’s interest in Hinduism. However, they are much more than indications of interest; they are also tools of power and control.

Stability was a major concern for Akbar who inherited a politically ill-governed India that was in economic shambles and divided. At the time of Akbar’s accession to the throne, India was a divided nation of local loyalties and kingdom warfare.[5] Gradually, between 1560-1570, Akbar extended his authority over the whole of Northern, Western, and Central India as well as territories in Afghanistan, Balochistan, Kashmir, Sind, Orissa, and the Deccan. By the late 1570s with his empire secure and with the birth of his successor, Salim (later Jahangir) in 1569, Akbar turned his focus to the expression of his power and stability as well as intellectual and personal concerns.

Akbar’s reign and those of his immediate successors, his son, Jahangir and his grandson, Shah Jahan, were in fact periods of great stability and organization. Akbar formed a strong centralized bureaucracy with elaborate organizational systems as a means of control, all loyal to and dependent upon him. Officials were organized into military ranks, or mansabdars, which were based on merit and owed sole allegiance to Akbar. This nobility consisted of Turks, Persians, Afghans, Rajputs and Indian Muslims, as Akbar succeeded in integrating and consolidating power over all the peoples of India. Replacing the quasi-feudal land-holding system of the Delhi Sultanate Period, this system was based on loyalty and favors and prevented defiance of Akbar’s imperial regime. Economically and politically, Mughal India was managed and controlled by Akbar. With these aspects of society under control, Akbar could turn his attention to a more pressing problem—the division of the people. It is in this social realm of society that Akbar could exert control through religious and artistic innovations.

After the birth of his son in 1569, Akbar moved his capital to Fatehpur Sikri in 1571, the site of many radical religious and artistic innovations. The period at Fatehpur Sikri was a time of exploration and searching. Here, Akbar explored Indian and Islamic concepts of religion and royalty and distanced himself from dogmatic Islamic faith. He also established his position as the sovereign over both material and spiritual worlds.

Michael Brand and Glenn Lowry explain this period in terms of the philosophy of the day. They cite two key issues that shaped Akbar conceptions of his native Mughal heritage and this new synthesis of cultures that fundamentally began at Fatehpur Sikri. Not only was Akbar concerned with living up to the expectations of his ancestors, namely Chingiz Khan and Timur, but he also sustained Islamic concepts of kingship despite interest in Indian and European traditions.[6] According to Brand and Lowry, the polarity between the material world (surat) and the spiritual world of inner meaning (manavi) with which Akbar struggled explains the emperor’s character and ambitions.[7] This concept is supported by Abu’l Fazl’s own words:

He [the leader] is a man of high understanding and noble aspirations who, without the help of others, recognizes a ray of the Divine power in the smallest things in the world; who shapes his inward and outward character accordingly, and shows due respect to himself and to others….True greatness, in spiritual and in worldly matters, does not shrink from the minutiae of business, but regards their performance as an act of Divine worship.[8]

The leader thus is responsible for both the outer, material world and the inner, spiritual realm. The new artistic language and synthesis of traditions and religions sought at Fatehpur Sikri reveals this conception of the leader and would allow him to explore and reveal this relationship between outer and inner meaning.

During this period of power consolidation, the king was conceived to be not only the physical leader of the empire but also the spiritual advisor. The Islamic view of kingship saw the leader as God’s deputy on earth. Abu’l Fazl relates:

Royalty is a light emanating from God, and a ray from the sun, the illuminator of the universe, the argument of the book of perfection, the receptacle of all virtues. It [this light] is communicated by God to kings without the intermediate assistance of anyone, and men, in the presence of it, bend the forehead of praise towards the ground of submission. Again, many excellent qualities flow from the possession of this light. 1. A paternal love towards the subjects…In his wisdom, the King will understand the spirit of the age and shape his plans accordingly. 2. A large heart….3. A daily increasing trust in God….4. Prayer and devotion.[9]

In this statement, the conception of the king’s responsibilities and duties are outlined as God’s representative on earth who loves his people and directs them with his understanding of the needs of the age. Akbar embodies these attributes and then takes this view of the king a step further with divine kingship, challenging Islamic views of the King as a mere vessel. Abu’l Fazl writes of Akbar:

Whenever…the time arrives that a nation learns to understand how to worship truth, the people will naturally look to their king, on account of the high position which he occupies, and expect him to be their spiritual leader as well; for a king possesses independent of men, the ray of Divine wisdom, which banished from his heart everything that is conflicting. A king will therefore sometimes observe the element of harmony in a multitude of things, or sometimes reversely, a multitude of things in that which is apparently one; for he sits on the throne of distinction, and is thus equally removed from joy and sorrow.

He [His Majesty Akbar] is now the spiritual guide of the nation, and sees in the performance of this duty a means of pleasing God. He has now opened the gate that leads to the right path, and satisfies the thirst of all that wander about panting for truth.[10]

Through his indifference and divinity, the king, namely Akbar, has the power to direct and control the people’s material and spiritual life. The standard Muslim invocation “Allahu Akbar!” or “God is Great” by coincidence of his name, can also be read, “Akbar is God.” While he denied such blasphemy, Akbar most certainly enjoyed the conflation of his name with that of God. Just as Akbar took control of the land, people, and history he also controlled the religious direction his empire would take. In doing so, he allowed for a greater synthesis of culture that in turn affected the art.

Akbar not only instituted a political revolution with his broad, long-term plans; he enacted a religious one as well. Akbar was curious and thoughtful, wanting to know the world and its people. Unlike his forefathers, he was born in India and was interested in and concerned with the different groups of people that composed the country. If he was to rule all of the land, he believed he needed to be more aware and sensitive to the needs of all of the people. His promotion of religious toleration grew out of his sympathies and respect for and fascination with the people of India. There are numerous stories of the emperor going out into the towns in disguise to mingle and interact with the people.[11] He also was sincerely interested in Indian styles, traditions, and customs. He celebrated some Hindu festivals and enacted various religious meetings to promote understanding and toleration.[12] Through his inquiries, he recognized one of the greatest problems of the country was the disunity and rift between Muslims and Hindus.

Many of Akbar’s resulting policies were directed at lessening the discrimination against Hindus. In 1562, Akbar married the Hindu princess of the Rajput raja of Amber. Her family was then inducted into the Mughal hierarchy as nobles (amirs), who retained their ancestral lands and their Hindu practices on the promise of allegiance and military support to the emperor. Such agreements were then rewarded with high-ranking court positions and riches. Akbar thus established marriage and imperial promotion as ways of uniting and controlling Hindu and Muslim courts. In 1563 and 1564, he abolished taxes on pilgrims worshipping at Hindu holy places and the jizya, or poll tax, on all non-Muslims, alleviating some of the legal discrimination.

In addition to these legal reforms, Akbar also created various establishments that promoted not only the unification of Hinduism and Islam, but also other religious faiths. In 1575, he established the House of Worship(Ibadat Khana) where men of different religious persuasions could meet and debate. In 1579, he issued the Decree of Infallibility in which he gave himself sole power to interpret Islamic doctrine, further supporting his position as spiritual and divine leader. In that same year, he invited Jesuits at Goa to send a mission to the Mughal court where he received holy books and European engravings. Jesuits visited again in 1580, 1590, and 1595. Because of his interest in various religions, Akbar created the Divine Faith (Din-I-Ilahi) in 1582, a synthetic religious system that attempted to combine disparate religious elements into one new sect with Akbar as the representative of God or God himself.

These various religious decrees were the result of Akbar’s intense curiosity and sensitivity, but it cannot be forgotten that they served as a means of control and unification of his lands to promote stability. His actions can also be seen in light of the conception of the king as divine ruler and controller of both material and spiritual realms. As stated earlier, this unprecedented action followed in the Timurid traditions of his ancestry. As he is described in the Akbarnama, “Lord of the world, decipher of the external, revealer of the internal,”[13] Akbar was truly working to establish himself as the supreme authority over and fashioner of the reality and spirituality of his empire. As a result, his art is a synthesis of his will to sovereignty and power.

These notions of material and spiritual well-being created and administrated by Akbar were manifested in literary and artistic form. Despite the ruler’s own illiteracy, Akbar’s reign was well documented by various contemporary chroniclers. His friend and admirer, Abu’l Fazl recorded in A’in-I Akbari every aspect of Akbar’s reign, always in flowery and praising terms. While this is an invaluable source of information, it is also a form of propaganda which elevates Akbar to godlike and infallible status. Bada’uni, a devout Muslim who was forced to translate various texts and was especially opposed to Akbar’s fascination with Hinduism, produced a more critical discussion of Akbar’s reign. However different, both of these men record the translation of Hindu texts, relating the political motivations behind them. As Bada’uni relates:

Now he ordered those Hindu books, …which were the very pivot on which all their religion, and faith, and holiness turned, to be translated from the Indian into the Persian language, and he thought to himself, “Why should I not have them done in my name?” For they are by no means trite, but quite fresh, and they will produce all kinds of fruits of felicity both temporal and spiritual, and will be the cause of circumstance and pomp, and will ensure an abundance of children and wealth, as is written in the preface of the books.[14]

Obviously, these translations served multiple purposes. Not only were they important for understanding; they would serve to indicate Akbar’s benevolence and produce both worldly and spiritual benefits. One can infer their purpose was to bring about peace through greater understanding between the Muslims and the Hindus. This purpose is more explicit in Abu’l Fazl’s introduction to the Razmnama, the manuscript of the translated Mahabharata: “Although this work contains numerous extravagant tales and fictions based on imagination, it affords many instructive moral observations, and is an ample record of felicitous experience.”[15] The texts not only provided instruction, but the commissioning of them is evidence of Akbar’s view of them as didactic and political tools. Abu’l Fazl states further: “Having observed the fanatical hatred between the Hindus and the Muslims and being convinced that it arose only from mutual ignorance, the enlightened monarch wished to dispel the same by rendering the books of the former accessible to the latter."[16] Akbar not only recognized the need to instill confidence through legal reform in the vast majority of the population who were Hindus; he also realized the necessity to quell sectarian unrest between them and his fellow Muslims. Searching for a way to unite these two opposing factions, he set out to construct a society as well as a visual vocabulary with which to deal with this issue.[17] It is clear the texts themselves as well as the display of acceptance were to promote understanding and social harmony, thus ensuring the stability of Akbar’s empire.