Gautama is Relieved to Find That His Son Chirakarin Has Not Carried Out His Impulsive Order to Execute Ahalya, Leaf from a Razmnama Manuscript

1598-1599

This painting is an illustration from the Persian translation of the great Hindu epic known as the Mahabharata (Razm-nama in Persian). The Mughal emperors who ruled northern India from the mid-sixteenth to the nineteenth century were Muslims, originally from Central Asia. One of the early emperors, Akbar, had the major texts of Hinduism translated into Persian so he could better understand their stories and teachings. The relatively simple composition and lack of minute detail suggest that this painting was made not for the emperor, but for one of his courtiers. It depicts an episode in which an impulsive man orders his son to kill his wife (the son’s mother). The father returns home, and the son begs his forgiveness (touching his feet in humility in the painting), because he has not carried out the command. The painting is in the hybrid Persian-Indian style practiced at the Mughal court.