The Deccani Schools of Painting
Ahmadnagar
Read clues in costume and landscape.
The earliest Deccani paintings are in a volume of poems celebrating Hussain Nizam Shah I of Ahmadnagar (1553-1565). It has 12 miniatures.
The queen and her marriage are painted in gorgeous colours and sensuous lines. The women follow the northern, pre-Mughal type (as in Malwa and Ahmedabad), with a choli and long braids ending in tassels.
But a long scarf passing round the body below the hips is a southern fashion, seen in the Lepakshi frescoes. In the Ragamala series, women wear their hair in a bun at the nape of the neck, also as at Lepakshi.
The high, circular horizon and the gold sky are Persian. All the Deccani kingdoms owed their way of painting landscape to Persia.
The men wear northern dress: the jama with pointed tails and a small pagri (turban), as in early Akbari miniatures.
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