Later Deccani painting

After the Mughal conquest, painting continued in the Deccan under the Asafiya dynasty and the provincial courts of the Nizam's Hyderabad.

A Hyderabad painting shows the Sufi saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya listening to his disciple, the poet Amir Khusrau. Qawwali songs by Khusrau are still sung at the saint's dargah in New Delhi.

The painting is naive and simple: it lacks the technical polish of a court painting. But it is charming, and tells its story well.

Another later, provincial painting shows Chand Bibi, the queen who resisted Akbar's attempts to take the Deccan, playing chaugan (polo).

Such works carried popular, devotional and heroic themes beyond the court.