13th century

The Mughals and Very Rare Mughal Arts-13th Century

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• published: 28 Sep 2016
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The Mughals and the Arts THE GREATNESS of the Mughal achievement in the political unification of India was matched by the splendor and beauty of the work of the architects, poets, historians, painters, and musicians who flourished in the period. The resemblances of the Mughal empire to the Bourbon monarchy in France during the same period have often been noted, and in India, as in France, a literate and refined court gave a recognizable style and manner to a wide variety of arts. Education Before turning to the arts themselves, something must be said of the vigorous educational activity at the capitals—both Delhi and Agra—and in such great provincial cities as Sialkot, Lahore, Ahmadabad, and Burhanpur. Without these centers, the cultural achievements of the Mughal period would scarcely have been possible. During Akbar's reign the "mental sciences"—logic, philosophy, and scholastic theology—had taken on new importance. About the same time, we notice a very considerable improvement in the teaching of the religious sciences. Akbar's conquest of Gujarat opened up ports like Cambay and Surat to those scholars from northern India who wished to go to the great religious center of Hejaz for further study. That the standard of learning in these subjects rose as a consequence is evidenced by the career of scholars like Shaikh Abdul Haq Muhaddis (1551–1642). The extensive study of hadith, in which Indian scholars were to distinguish themselves in the eighteenth century, began because of this contact with Arabia. Bernier, the French traveler who was in India during Aurangzeb's reign, deplored the deficiencies of the educational system. To prove his point, he quoted Aurangzeb's reproaches against his tutor for having [[239]] wasted time on grammar and metaphysics, while ignoring geography, history, and politics. No attempt was made to control education, even though the state gave large grants of rent-free lands to ulama for setting up madrasas. There were no regular examinations, and no organization for maintaining standards. Yet Mughal education had its special values, for Muslim education did not decay in the eighteenth century with the decline of Muslim political authority. The reduced calls made by the state employment on Muslim manpower left more men free to devote themselves to academic and literary work. A number of educational institutions and foundations, including the colleges established by Ghazi-ud-din Khan Firuz Jang, Sharaf-ud-daulah, and Raushan-ud-daulah in Delhi belong to this period. The standardization of the educational curriculum was accomplished in the eighteenth century. The Dars-i-Nizamiya, named after Mulla Nizam-ud-din (1748) provided instruction in grammar, rhetoric, philosophy, logic, scholasticism, tafsir (commentary on the Quran), fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), hadith, and mathematics. This curriculum has been criticized for containing too many books on grammar and logic and in general for devoting too much attention to formal subjects, and too little to useful secular subjects like history and natural sciences or even religious subjects like tafsir and hadith. But it provided good mental discipline, and its general adoption was responsible for the widespread interest in intellectual and philosophical matters. In the period in which it was systematized it was perhaps reasonably adequate for the average student. Those wishing to specialize or pursue a particular branch of knowledge went to the experts in that subject. The needs of the students specially interested in religious subjects were better served at institutions like Madrasa-i-Rahimiya, the forerunner of the modern seminary of Deoband, where tafsir and hadith were the principal subjects of study, but for those needing a general education to qualify for the posts of munshis, qazis, or religious preachers, Dars-i-Nizamiya provided a satisfactory basis until modern times.