BLINDNESS OF WESTERN SCHOLARS – OBVIOUS FAKES ACCEPTED AS GENUINE WORKS

BLINDNESS OF WESTERN SCHOLARS
OBVIOUS FAKES ACCEPTED AS GENUINE WORKS

What is the reason for same?

Fake miniature made for Guzdar dealer
Fake miniature made for Guzdar dealer

People come here under the scrutiny of Western scholarship and the disdain they feel for our local scholarship. Like colonial Masters, they feel that we know nothing, and they know everything. And yet we find blunders after blunders in their insight based on political motives as well as bigotry of the highest order. Any work really can be checked in a simple way. For instance they have a laboratory in Switzerland where they can scan the works and analyze the pigments and can find the age of most things. Why the obvious fakes are not subject to the scientific test? There must be a reason for same.

Of course our connoisseurship has gone down the drains too. Scholars here free of greed worked day and night to carve their name in the history of insight and scholarship. But here too a total disregard of the arts started and the present Government even abolished the Ministry of Culture. I am sure we could one day have a ban on Art and Culture, if the Mullahs really get through our veins. We too have lost the ability to observe and look at the finer points of most things.

M.A. Rahman Chughtais statement
M.A. Rahman Chughtais statement

M.A. Rahman Chughtai, the grand Son of the Soil was made of another matter totally. He did not practice Art, but he actually lived ART. All his life revolved around Art in some ways. He need not look at Art of this region, he could feel the Art in his veins. He could spell out likr Emperor Jahangeer the inner point, the finer issues and the background of each work, down to the details, of which portions were by which artists. Observation was that acute. M.A. Rahman Chughtai was irritated with a numberof fakes floating in the Western world, a result of 19th and 20th century Jaipur Artists, made for the dealer GUZDAR in Bombay. To this day various albums touted as Mughal albums contained many fakes like these. The artist Chughtai explained things in detail in his book THE HOUSE OF TAIMUR AND OTHER ARTICLES (1970). We can narrate his judg’ment here, and one can check the attachment we have here. For the full account read the book THE HOUSE OF TAIMUR. Copy can be obtained from us at request. Suffice one can get the idea from the paragraph attached with this writing. Good luck in your analysis. Start having confidence in your own observations.

WESTERN SCHOLARSHIP ON THE DECLINE – NO UNDERSTANDING OF REGIONAL ART POLITICS

WESTERN SCHOLARSHIP ON THE DECLINE
NO UNDERSTANDING OF REGIONAL ART POLITICS

Fading glory of connoisseurship of past

1976 Basil Gray and ARC outside London Club
1976 Basil Gray and ARC outside London Club

There is no doubt that British understood this region well. The scholars they created in the Arts knew all this more, and excellence in scholarship was created by people like Sir Thomas Arnold, Laurence Binyon, Basil Gray, Robert Skelton, Ralph Pinder Wilson, Robert Hellebrand and others. But a new wave of students got their knowledge in India after 1947 and never got a chance to come to Pakistan after 1947. Their minds and eyes got muddled and soon scores of art dealers muddled the whole picture of Indo-Pakistani Art.

Yes, there are lies, and there are Art lies. The two Nation theory is ever dominant in the Arts too. Both nations had their own way of dealing with the Arts. A basic and natural aversion to sculpture which was to be worshipped was there. Muslims enjoyed figurines for pleasure, never for religious sake. And the figures they saw being worshipped, as iconoclasts, they destroyed in a political wave. Most of this sculpture was purely erotic and they would fail to understand why the LINGAM or the PHALLUS was worshipped as a natural god here. In Mandirs in deep down dark caves, young girls lost their virginity on lingams and this blood was offered as sacred duty to the gods. The most erotic sculpture was there, in unimaginable sexual positions, to wrest the equilibrium of these people. But the Hindus loved to revel in Stone in line of the Buddhist before them. But the local sculpture did not have the aquiline poses of Central Asia. The Shiva and Krishnas were stout warriors here in their own Art.

Angels in Mughal Art
Angels in Mughal Art

The Muslims did ART FOR ART SAKE only. No religion was involved here, and they accepted everything as a thing of beauty that could be a joy forever. Aurangzeb Alamgeer had all praise for the CAVES OF ELLORA (Even Mahmud Ghaznavi liked Hindu Architecture). He himself was a connoisseur of Art and Art did not falter but continued with its far reaching effects on the region.

Paper came from China but in this region it was introduced by the Muslims. So painting on paper became a tradition of Muslim Painting itself. And although all kinds of painting flourished here as Wall paintings too, they were replaced by Albums of paintings and the art of the miniature, for basically horse men and elephant riders, like the Muslims would love to carry Albums with them, to read and study by their campfire for enjoyment on the journeys. With times change, so did the composition and size of the paintings itself.

M.A. Rahman Chughtai would get irritated with the massive fake portrayal of CHERUBS in Fake Mughal Art. There was no scope for the depiction of silly images which only suited Western Art. Here the concept of Angels was bathed in beauty and the Angels wore beautiful clothes, peacock like feathers and beautiful faces. Naked Cherub boys were not in taste of these people. Scholars impose this image on the Mughals to raise their stature high, as that the Mughals were indebted to them for inspiration. It is a pity that the bigotry of these many western scholars have not been able to evade. We look at Mughal Art through Mughal eyes, not eyes tainted by jealousy and envy of culture.

Ridiculous Cherubs in Fake Mughal Art
Ridiculous Cherubs in Fake Mughal Art

Western scholarship recognized all this once upon a time. But now it seems funny that they have made STEREOTYPES of things with fixed accounts. This is just a call forward to the Western world to study our culture too and our point of view. Many of the works you hold for as genuine are just fake works. And M.A. Rahman Chughtai was the first to point out that. But more of this in another blog.

THE MELODY OF “AZAN” MORE THAN BEETHOVENS SYMPHONY

THE MELODY OF “AZAN” MORE THAN BEETHOVENS SYMPHONY
DECIBELS SHRIEKS IN MOSQUES DESTROYING EARDRUMS OF NEIGHBOURHOOD

The Mullahs obsession with unnecessary sound is OCD

Clash over unnecessary use
Clash over unnecessary use

When loudspeakers came in the region, the fatwa of the Mullahs was unanimous. Loudspeakers were Anti-Islamic in nature and should never be used. Then in their Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, the Mullahs realized that the same could be a tool for tyranny in their hands by destroying the peace and tranquility of the neighbourhood.

Eardrums tearing noises not melody
Eardrums tearing noises not melody

There is famous case of the a Hindu girl in a small village. She used to hear the Morning Azan every day and its melody, took her in so much ecstasy, that she embraced Islam for its harmony for the soul. Today loudspeakers clash with each other for dominance of sound. If one mosque has one loudspeaker, another has two, another four, perhaps some even sixteen. When the Azan is recited in a number of nearby mosques, mosque after mosque, the clashing sounds turn the eternal beauty and melody of the Azan into an eardrum piercing exercise. There is no religion or Deen involved here. Nobody objects to the Azan, nor anybody can do the same. It is the destruction of melody which disturbs most people and they do not have the GUTs to take the area Mullah in their hands and tell them that they are not involved in religious duty in any way by piercing eardrums, but a menace to society and peace of the neighbourhood.

Muezzin's Call
Muezzin’s Call

The natural sound of the Azan was turned and tested by musicians and they put the musical nodes to it, and found that the sound itself is a Divine blessing and very pleasant to the ears. Even today on Television, there are some QARIS who rivet your ears to the beauty of the rendering of the Azan. It is a science in itself. But this science is disturbed by the zero aesthetics and sound understandng by an overruly Mullah of the neighbourhood, for whom more decibels mean more power. There was a blind Qari in the Wazeer Khan Mosque (no loudspeakers then) and when he recited the Azan, people used to stop in their tracks to hear it. It is said that his melody could even be heard near the Lohari Gate, just the voice and its purity of expression.

MUSIC INHERENT IN AZAN RECITATION
MUSIC INHERENT IN AZAN RECITATION

SOUND MASTERS should be hired to test the area of each mosque and like stereo harmony, set the decibels of each mosque, so that there should be no conflict, and that the purity of the Azan can come not only to the ears of Muslims, but also others, and like the Hindu Girl, they too should be forced to acknowledge the DIVINITY that is inherent in every choice of Allah. This does not require much investment but the result would be tremendous and the Blessings of Allah will dawn upon us.

DIARY OF A HINDU PRINCE OF DEV GEER (DAULATABAD) 694 AH (1294 AD)

DIARY OF A HINDU PRINCE OF DEV GEER (DAULATABAD) 694 AH (1294 AD)
PROFESSOR HASSAN NIZAMI’S EFFORT TO SAVE HISTORY

An important conversion of Allauddin Khiljis reign

Tomb Tilangani
Tomb Tilangani

The great Professor Hassan Nizami was obsessed with history and his contributions to Sultanate period in this region is indispensable. He was also an outright mureed of Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia and wrote whatever he could about him and his followers. In the life of the great Saint, he came across the diary of a Hindu Prince Raj Kumar Hardev. The story of Raj Kumar, put in isolation by Hindu historians, is a very important episode in the history of this region. But here we have life of a manuscript to discuss.

When the Mahrattas sacked Delhi, the loot they took to Bharatpur and in a Royal library of Bharatpur, was a manuscript of a DIARY OF A HINDU PRINCE RAJ KUMAR HARDEV. It was found that after his capture in Daulatbad, Allauddin Khilji took a tutor to him to teach him Persian langage and he became an avid Persian writer. Now and then he would jot own details about his life. The result was a diary which he called as CHAEL ROZA. Hassan Nizami was fascinated with this information, as this very Prince after conversion, not only became MIR IMARAT Chief Architect of the reign, but also the PRIME MINISTER and later married the daughter of Sultan Tughlaq. He is also known by his many Royal titles. So his story could not be diminished, and had to be saved for the future.

Hassan Nizami was all bent on publishing this diary separately, when riots broke out in India. The original MS was destroyed in Bharatpur to his information. The published book at Delhi was subject to watering and that was on the verge of total destruction. With a few copies in hand, Hassan Nizami fled to Deccan, the home of the ancient Hindu Prince himself. Here he gave those badly printed copies for publication. He could not check it himself as his eyesight was failing and had failed. His sons helped him in the review. It was printed in Deccan in 1948, and then again Deccan was annexed by the Delhi regime itself.

Tomb of Khan Jahan Tilangani
Tomb of Khan Jahan Tilangani

How many copies survived of the poorly printed Ms we do not know? But they must be out there. But their contents do not suit the Hindu historians who twists tales all the time. Here is a tale from a diary of an important Hindu Prince who converted to Islam at the hands of Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia and he lies buried in his complex, as the SECOND OCTAGONAL MASOLEUM in INDO PAKISTANI REGION. The first being the Mausoleum of Ruknuddin Alam in Multan where the Prince had ruled as a Governor.

The mausoleum is in total ruins and lie in the complex of Nizamuddin Aulia. Neglected by the Historians and Conservators of India, it may soon see oblivion. But so does this important publication. It needs to be published again in fresh format. Maybe someone out there will do it. Hats off to Hassan Nizami Sahib. May Allah rest his soul in peace!

A LITTLE KNOWN CENSUS OF LAHORE 1850 AD – AMAZING FIGURES OF THAT TIME

A LITTLE KNOWN CENSUS OF LAHORE 1850 AD
AMAZING FIGURES OF THAT TIME

Revelations otherwise not possible

Old Lahore
Old Lahore

The British took over Lahore formally in 1849 AD. In 1850 AD Ayodia Prashad was the Tehseeldar of Lahore and was asked to conduct a detailed census of the city. It is not for us to state every fact and figure of the census but some facts are very interesting. For instance:

Old Lahore
Old Lahore

Total population of Lahore around 82,000 only.
Total Income of Lahore One Lakh, thirty one thousand, nine hundred and sixty-six Rupees only.
Total Muslims 46,695 only.
Total Hindus 32,109 only.
Total Sikhs 2501 (And some people think of it as a Sikh city).
Hardly no Christians, Parsees, Buddhists, or even any Bengallis. Few Europeans only.
Total shops in city 28,694 only.
Total elephants 54.
Total camels 318 only.
Total horses 1595 only.
Many Professions represented, including Painters and Architects.
Total Madarassa (schools) 143 teaching mostly Arabic and Persian, and that does not include hundreds of basic educational wings attached to mosques. Even Hindus and Sikhs were learning Persian and Arabic in these schools.
Prostitution spread all over city, but mainly Anarkali area. No Hira Mandi in operation.

Towards Pakistan
Towards Pakistan

A very interesting incident is narrated of a Prostitute in Anarkali singing a song of having no access to her lover. A British sepoy was passing who knew the local language too, and went up to her house, to tell her not to mourn non access to her lover. There were many means for communication. She could send a letter by post, use the telegraph near the Railway Station or go to her lover in actual terms. The people in the bazaar of Anarkali burst out in laughter, for the Sepoy had not realized that the song was an advertisement to lure or seduce some passerby and the sepoy did not get the actual terms. Historical incidents have their funny aspects too.

Increasing Lahore populationThe number of Muslims prove the fact that Lahore in its span of more than a thousand years was a Muslim city and Muslim Culture predominated here. More on that later.

WEST OWES MANY THINGS TO ISLAM – THE STORY OF RAPUNZEL IS ONE OF THEM

WEST OWES MANY THINGS TO ISLAM
THE STORY OF RAPUNZEL IS ONE OF THEM

Amazing story of Rudabha and Zaal

Raphunzel
Raphunzel

The world of fairy tales is not a new world. Today Walt Disney’s world gives global child access to modernized versions of fairy tales. Good and well done! Once upon a time the same was done by Qissas of Alif Laila or the Tales of one thousand and one nights. Without going into the details, those short stories are still a part of our daily lore. Even today we recognize characters like Ali Baba, Alladdin, and Sinbad as coming from these Islamic sources of Alif Laila. However many are still unknown to us.

Raphunzel lowers her hair
Raphunzel lowers her hair

Take the much loved story of RAPUNZEL, the trapped Princess in a tower with long tresses which she lowers for her lover Prince to get up to her. We seen Walt Disney’s version as well as many others. Fairy tale books are full of the same stories. And we do realize that the famous German Grimm brothers twisted these fairy stories. The Rapunzel story they first wrote in 1812 and revised it till 1857. Where did they get the story? Bards who sung these stories on the street. We are told of the story of PETROSINELLA that was written by Giambattista Basille in 1634, and later revised by Charllote Caumont in 1697-98.

Rudabha 1580 (Modern Raphunzel)
Rudabha 1580 (Modern Raphunzel)

Okay but what was the origin of these stories even way back. A loose story plot is traced to the history of SAINT BARBARA in Izmir Turkey, but that is just a loose story. Rapunzel the fairy tale has much in common with the story of RUDABHA AND ZAAL , narrated in poem by the great poet Firdausi at the request and at the court of Sulran Mahmud Ghaznavi, a thousand years ago. It was also illustrated at Akbar’s court in Lahore and we present a miniature of the climbing of Zaal to Rudabha through the use of her long hair. Yes, enjoy Rapunzel, and be more proud, that it belongs to Islamic sources and the great epic of all times the SHANAMA OF FIRDAUSI. And in some ways Lahore is also part of it.

MORE ON USTAD BEHZAD LAHORI – DARAB NAMAH MANUSCRIPT

MORE ON USTAD BEHZAD LAHORI
DARAB NAMAH MANUSCRIPT

Tracing Lahori links

Attributed to Behzad Lahori
Attributed to Behzad Lahori

The Darab namah in the archives of a leading museum in England contains the remnants of 200 paintings. Although considered on a smaller scale than a Royal work, it is actually an attempt by STUDENTS OF THE MUSSSAVARI KHANA AT LAHORE. This is illustrated b a notation on the manuscript of a painting by Behzad Lahori, that it was corrected by Ustad Khawaja Abdul Samad (his father) of Lahore. The authorities speak of the many details of the manuscript and they say:

“The tales of Darab: a medieval Persian prose romance
One of the manuscripts we have recently digitised is the Dārābnāmah, an illustrated prose romance describing the adventures of the Persian King Darab, son of Bahman, and Alexander the Great, originally composed in the 12th century by Muhammad ibn Hasan Abu Tahir Tarsusi. Our copy unfortunately only contains the first part of the epic, ending with the story of the Macedonian princess Nahid, Darab’s newly-wedded bride and the future mother of Alexander the Great, being returned unwanted (she had bad breath) but pregnant to her father Faylaqus (Philip of Macedon).

Shagirad Behzad Lahori of Abdul Samad
Shagirad Behzad Lahori of Abdul Samad

Our copy was probably completed between 1580 and 1585 for the Mughal Emperor Akbar. Classed as ‘Grade Two’ in the Mughal imperial library, it originally contained at least 200 paintings, and presumably there was also a second volume. By 1828, probably looted or sold, it belonged to the Nawabs of Awadh whose seals are stamped on the final leaf. When the British Museum purchased it from Quaritch in 1893, there were only 157 paintings and many leaves, including the colophon, were missing.”

Now we know that Emperor Akbar was in Lahore in the year attributed to the manuscript and the Mussavari Khana was in full swing. Students were being trained and the many artists working on a lower standard copy does not mean anything else but that it was an attempt by the newly recruited students at Lahore to show their learning process acquired under the great Master Khawajah Abdul Samad. What can be more clear than that? The assertion is more clear when we find at least two painters of the manuscript calling themselves Lahori itself. In simple terms the Manuscript was done in Lahore by all the students who were working in Lahore under the great Master. Most of them, these students, would be working in the Lahore Fort but living in the inner city itself, the birth place of Mughal painting.

We personally note something very strange. The composition of the work (illustrated) has a background composition which is very much like the background handling in the Art of M.A. Rahman Chughtai. There is Chughtai in the work in muted form. How did that happen? It was the signal of Lahore to develop its own traits compositions and momentos in art. That the son of Lahore, M.A Rahman Chughtai inherited traits of Ustad Behzad of Lahore is self evident in our history.

Cry-of-the-Nightingale
Cry-of-the-Nightingale

M.A. RAHMAN CHUGHTAI AND SAADAT HASSAN MANTO – POLES APART IN THOUGHT AND YET TOGETHER

M.A. RAHMAN CHUGHTAI AND SAADAT HASSAN MANTO
POLES APART IN THOUGHT AND YET TOGETHER

The Story of a trial in Lahore

Manto (Majeed AlMakki Related)
Manto (Majeed AlMakki Related)

There was hardly anyone in the art or literature field in the region who was not in contact with M.A. Rahman Chughtai. But his contact with Saadat Hassan Manto was of a different kind. My uncle Abdur Raheem Chughtai used to tell me the stories in detail. Late evening the voice of Manto would reverberate in the gali (small lane) of his Chabuk Sawaran house. Abdur Rahman Chughtai used to ask his brother, who is it? Abdur Raheem used to reply it is Manto again, asking for his usual Ten rupees. Abdur Rahman was kind at heart and used to say he is under pressure right now with his addiction issues. Go give him the Ten rupees. And the Ten rupees used to be given. It was the kindness of Abdur Rahman Chughtai which used to help Manto when he was starved from his alcohol addiction. And this is a hundred percent fact.

Of course Saadat Hassan Manto wrote on Sex and Sexual matters (at times about incest too), but writers of that time thought nothing of it. And that was no issue with Abdur Rahman Chughtai as to what Manto wrote. For him and in his views, he was a writer and a writer needed to be defended all the time. A case was initiated in court against Manto and he was arrested for the same. A trial began. Few came forward to help Manto. It was Abdur Rahman Chughtai who appeared in the Court (much to annoyance of many) and bailed him out and satisfied the judge that Manto was an honourable citizen of the country. And all this on record and acknowledged by Manto himself.

Manto talks of Perversion
Manto talks of Perversion

Of course Manto acknowledged many things as he too admits that PERVERSION is part of his character. We publish an excerpt from his writings where he talks of this PERVERTED aspect of his life. But we have no objection to same, and it is none of our business. The freedom of a writer needs to be guaranteed in any society. But when the freedom is taken too far, then chaos descend in the society.

The much hyped TOBA TEK SINGH is a story in question of two mental asylums on both sides of the divided geography due to the Two Nation Drive in India and Pakistan. And he creates some lunatics in a Mental Asylum and dubs them as Muhammed Ali Jinnah as well a Master Tara Singh, but strange that he does not create any Jawaharlal Nehru or Mahatama Gandhi. Why? Here we have a suspect in our hands? In fact he was writing to people like Ismat Chughtai that he did not like it here and wanted to go back to Bombay. Freedom was to create all the lunatics. But in his views the lunatics were these people and he makes them utter MURDABAD PAKISTAN too. Read about it yourself:

“A stout Muslim lunatic from Chiniot who had been an enthusiastic worker for the Muslim League, and who bathed fifteen or sixteen times a day, suddenly abandoned this habit. His name was Muhammad Ali. Accordingly, one day in his madness he announced that he was the Qa’id-e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. In imitation of him, a Sikh lunatic became Master Tara Singh. In this madness it almost came to bloodshed, but both were declared ‘dangerous lunatics’ and shut up in separate rooms.

One day, while bathing, a Muslim lunatic raised the cry of “Long live Pakistan!” with such force that he slipped on the floor and fell, and knocked himself out.”

It is a fact that the writer Manto was himself familiar with the Lunatic Asylum in a very personal way. It is said that due to his alcoholism, he spent time in the Lahore Mental Asylum. So his writings were very realistic.

Saadat Hassan Manto
Saadat Hassan Manto

Our object is not to give you the story but the cue of the story. It is simple. Manto did not like the Muslims here and thought of them as ‘characterless in allowing Sikhs to rape the dead bodies of Muslim women. (thanda ghost). Manto was against the division of this region in two countries and did not believe in the Two Nation theory. Manto writes himself again:

“A deadly atmosphere surrounded as before summer, in the sky, eagles shrieks would make us sad,, in the same way Pakistan Zindabad and Quaid e Azam Zindabad chanted slogans, also were sad to our ears.
On Radio waves Iqbal Marhoom similar poesy was wearing us out by being a burden on our shoulders.” (loose translation)

The result the Indian lobby is supporting Saadat Hassan Manto to this day as a voice of ignorant Pakistan, whose intellectuals did not believe in the Ideology of Pakistan. As far as our greatest intellectual Dr Allama Iqbal is concerned, they invent all the wrong stories about him. You see false stories floating everywhere against Dr Allama Iqbal and Quaid-e-Azam, what about the exploits of Jawaharlal Nehru (Lady Mountbatten scandal) as well as Mahatama Gandhi. To save the reputation of Mahatama Gandhi, India bought letters of him to his Jewish lower, to remove them from public eyes. Is that not a fact too? How Gandhi uses exquisite words for his Jewish lover in sexual incidents?

The simple truth is that the Propaganda machine wants to spin evil against Pakistan and bath India in ocean of holiness. I am sure there are bad people on both sides as well as good people. But with the recent rise of the Hindu Mullahs in India the story is totally different. The saner element in India needs to pay heed to the call of the time. PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE AND RESPECT FOR DIVERSITY IS THE NEED OF THE TIMES.

And one thing is sure as attested by Carnegie Institute of Studies. Alcoholism generates paradoxes in our character and we say things, which we do not know we are saying. Alcoholism says the American Psychiatric Association makes Rats feel like lions and when the effect wears out they realize they are just rats and have to drink again to become lions. No reference to dear Manto Sahib.

MOHALLA OF SHEIKH BASAWAN – AREA OF LAHORI PAINTERS

MOHALLA OF SHEIKH BASAWAN
AREA OF LAHORI PAINTERS

Riddles of society

Mian Tansen
Mian Tansen

Lahore became the capital of Mughal India for many years. Zaheeruddin Babar passed through, but Mirza Kamran made Lahore his city. To this day we have the remaining Baradari of Kamran to remind us of its origins. As the city was the cornerstone of defense of India, Emperor Akbar made it his capital for 14 years. Although Akbar was here again and again yet from 1584 to 1598 he was stationed here in his capital. People working under the Mughals were gradually converting to Islam for reasons of their own. Mostly these people came from lower classes and had no respect in their community. History records that Painters were treated worse than Mochis (shoe-makers). By embracing Islam they found out what emancipation meant. Mian Tansen is a good example of this conversion to Islam and to this day his grave exists in the compound of the Saint of Gwalior. Another example was the court painter Ibraheem Kahar Lahori, who converted to Islam, and was part of the camp of Royal Painters. Of course history records many more.

M.A. Rahman Chughtai was a legendary painter of Lahore and he wrote about the Lahori painters. One of the main area of Lahori painters was near the CHOTTA MUFTI BAQIR, who was a Mufti of the times of Emperor Shah Jahan. We know a lot about him and his books on religion. In the same place lived many painters and the chowk was named after painters too. First there was the Mohalla of Rahmatullah Naqash. This Rahmatullah was the father of the famous painter of Ranjit Singh’s time Muhammed Baksh Suhaf, and was the grandfather of another famous man, that is Fazaluddin Suhaf. Nearby at Mohalla Kharadia, other painters existed in their domain. The famous Imam Baksh Lahori also belonged to this area. When I went to the same place in 1977, I found a blue and white plaque of British period and it simply said MOHALLA SHEIKH BASAWAN. A Mohalla of a person amidst houses of various painters of Lahore evinced me to ask about the man Sheikh Basawan himself. I was told that he belonged to the Court of Emperor Akbar, and used to work for him in Lahore. This was the period in Lahore when the greatest Masterpieces of Mughal Art were created here. In fact the birth place of Mughal painting.

Ustad Basawan
Ustad Basawan

The background is surprising and very clear. Humayoun sought the refuge of the Shah of Iran and was hosted there in great honour. There he met various artists and invited them to India. Although two names are mentioned again and again, there were at least six prominent ones who came. Mulla Qutbuddin Jalanju was from Baghdad, and came till Mashad, and then for domestic reasons went back . The other five were very much there. Each did their best work and presented it to the Emperor. The five were Mulla Dost Muhammed, Mir Sayyid Ali, Khawaja Abd al-Samad, Maulana Darwesh Muhammed and Maulana Yusuf. Khawaja Abd al-Samad was appointed tutor of both Humayoun and the young Akbar for drawing lessons. Humayoun gave him the task of illustrating the HAMZA NAMA in Kabul. As Kabul was not very suitable, they came to Lahore and set up the famous Mussavari khana in the Lahore Fort. Here Abd al-Samad recruited painters of all types. It should not be forgotten that like other cities in the Indo region, Lahore already had a great tradition of painting and the Sultanate painting done here is a matter of record too. Here Khawaja Abd al-Samad recruited people like Basawan, who Abu Fazl praises to a great extent.

Yes Basawan was very much in Lahore and working here. The Historian Bayazid Biyat in his book ‘Mukhtasar’ mentions the presence of Khawaja Abd al-Samad in Lahore in 999 AH that is 1590 AD, although Akbar only left Lahore in 1598 AD. That means the Musavari khana continued to function in the city. But there is a surprise here. It is called Mohalla Sheikh Basawan, nothing else. The attachment of Sheikh with the name meant that Basawan had embraced Islam during his life time. We hear of Manohar Dass his son, and problems associated in that family and there could be the reason for this conversion itself. In his pictures at time we see the image of an holy man repeated, it could be his hidden self portrait. The background of his pictures is clearly Lahori in character as the red stoned buildings of Akbar prophesy here. It is a shame that Western and Hindu scholarship remain allergic to Lahore to this day for reason of mere bigotry and prejudice of the highest order. Without prejudice the Muslim Masters gave lessons of their art to all concerned more specifically the Hindu subjects. It was the large heartedness of the Masters which compelled many students to embrace Islam as attested by the abundance of Muslim families living in the painters houses to this day.

Mughal Painters Studio Lahore Fort
Mughal Painters Studio Lahore Fort

NOT ONLY ONE USTAD BEHZAD – WEST NOT FAMILIAR WITH BEHZAD LAHORI

NOT ONLY ONE USTAD BEHZAD,
WEST NOT FAMILIAR WITH BEHZAD LAHORI

In search of a lost painter

JAIN by Ustad Behzad Lahori
JAIN by Ustad Behzad Lahori

A very impressive Western connoisseurship has gone down the drains. We saw a catalogue of Sothebys, for instance and it listed a number of people standing and their names were written on it. It said various names and added the affix Shahjahanabadi with it. The commentator had written that they were all related to each other for they all had same Sir names. We could laugh only. Shahjahanabad is name of the city founded by Shah Jahan, that is the Delhi and Agra complex in one. Similar basic mistakes appear again and again. Lost the ability to look like locals and locals lost the ability to look at all. Some common sense about ourselves only we have and the world is forewarned about it.

One relates to the artist Behzad. We are so familiar with the great Ustad Behzad, that if we see the name anywhere else, we think of it as someone trying to forge a work in the name of the great Master. Not always so, indeed. The Iranians boasted of a most famous modern Behzad of their own. We also have a Behzad Lahori and there are few paintings we can calmly claim to be his own. The Jain Miniature is not by Ustad Sheikh Basawan but by Behzad Lahori, and many have mistaken this as a wrong attribution. Not so. There are miniatures of European women which are linked to the brush of Behzad Lahori. The Darab-nama in the British Museum is also one of them. We have tried to give you some visuals of same.

European musicians by Behzad Lahori
European musicians by Behzad Lahori

Who was Behzad Lahori? This takes us to the Mussavari khana in Lahore Fort and Khawaja Abdul Samad, one of the pioneers of Mughal Art in our region. Abdul Samad brought two young sons with him when he came to Lahore from Kabul. One was Khawajah Shareef and the other was Behzad Mussavar. Khawajah Shareef was a great scholar and poet having the takhallus ‘Farsi’ as his poetic name. Stray manuscripts carry his name. The same goes for Behzad Lahori, who was reared up and lived his life in Lahore, and later died here at a young age. He was first brought to our notice by one of the greatest Persian scholar of Pakistan, Hafiz Mahmud Khan Shairani. Professor Shairani pointed out that this painter was definitely of this region and was the son of Khawajah Abdul Samad. Professor Shairani who had seen the Darab nama in the British Museum itself, spelled it in clear terms. This was later certified by the famous Western Scholar Dr Laurence Binyon, who said:

“A not very distinguished group in the sixteenth century Indian Darab Namah at the British Museum, London, bears the inscription, that the work of Behzad was corrected by Khawajah Abdul Samad.”

Other paintings of Behzad are found in the Changez nama in the Bankipur library, Patna. So the presence of Ustad Behzad Lahori is felt here and there. But the wonderful portrait of a Jain monk in a Lahori setting is obviously one of his masterpieces. More work needs to be done on him.

European musician
European musician