John Seyller

Balchand
Active 1595-c. 1650. Worked for Prince Salim in Allahabad c. 1600-November 1604. Re
turned to the imperial atelier in Agra in November 1604, Brother of Payag.

Balchand began his long career with minor roles in two luxury manuscripts of the late 1590s.
He joined Prince Salim at Allahabad, returning to the imperial painting workshop at Agra by
1605 to contribute ever more finely executed illustrations to manuscripts produced over the
next decade. He became proficient at individual portraits, bringing to them a remarkable em
pathetic quality, a penchant for elegant detail, and a distinctive sense of weightlessness. In
the 1630s and 1640s, Balchand sporadically explored the spatial and atmospheric effects of
European painting that fascinated his brother, Payag, but remained committed to the clarity
of form. His last works date from about 1650.

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Important Inscribed Works Inscribed (on a book in lower left corner)

1. Akbar supervises the construction of Fatehpur Sikri |Fig.11 'amal-i Balchand musawwir... clast... Jahangir Padshah Ghalzi]

By Balchand "work of Balchand the painter... Jahangir Padshah"

Akbarnama, right half of a double-page composition

Mughal, volume dated by one painting to 1597 5. Firdausi discusses poetry with friends |Fig.61

43 X 26 cm (page), 24 x 12.5 cm (painting) By Balchand and Payag

Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (Ms. 3, f. 152b) From a dispersed Shahnama

Published: Leach 1995, no. 2.125 (unillustrated) Mughal, c. 1610
34.6 x 22.5 cm (page). 19.8 x 10.8 cm (painting)
Inscribed
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City (54-81)
Balchand
Published: Smart 1991, fig. 6
Inscribed (on border)
2. Sheikh al-lslam Ahmad al-Namiqi al-Jami attempts to fetch
'amal-i Balchand wa baradar-i u
wine |Fig.4|
"work of Balchand and his brother"
By Balchand
Nafahat al-Uns
Mughal, colophon dated 1604-1605 6. A youth expires when his beloved approaches and speaks to
27 x 14.5 cm (page), 18.3 x 11 cm (painting) him |Fig.8l

British Library, London (Or. 1362, f. 226a) By Balchand (with additions attributed to Murar)

Published: Beach 1992, fig. 46; Smart 1991, fig. 3 Fragment from a Gulistan of Sa'di
Mughal, c. 1610-1615 (additions c. 1640)
Inscribed
18.9 x 12.6 cm (painted panel), 8.5 x 12.3 cm (original core of
Balchand. Awwal
the painting)
"Balchand. First-class"
The David Collection, Copenhagen (1/2009)
Published: Seyller 2010b, figs. 1 and 2
3. Courtiers attend a royal reception |Fig.5|
Inscribed (beneath horse)
By Balchand
Diwan of Nawa'i banda Balchand
"the servant Balchand"
Mughal, c.1606
and
30.2 x 19.9 cm (page), 21 X 13.5 cm (painting)
'amal-i Balchand
The Royal Collection © 2008, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
(RCIN 1005033, f. 1a) "work of Balchand"

Published: Seyller forthcoming 2011

7. Raja Sarang Deo
Inscribed (below the illumination)
By Balchand
Balchand
From the Kevorkian Album
Mughal, c. 1615
4. Borders of a folio with calligraphy by Faqir'Ali |Fig.7|
38.9 x 25.4 cm (page)
By Balchand
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (55.121.10.29a)
Jahangir Album
Published: Crill and Jariwala 2010, pi. 16: Jahangirnama 1999,
Mughal, c. 1606
350; Welch et al. 1987, no. 26 (upper left)
42.2 x 26.7 cm (page), all calligraphy together 28.4 x 17.3 cm
Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Preussischer Kulturbesitz (Ms. A117, Inscribed in the lower left of the painting by Jahangir
f. 13b) shabih-i Raja Sarang (Deo?)

Published: Kiihnel and Goetz 1926, pi. 38 "portrait of Raja Sarang Deo"

Inscribed below the painting by Shahjahan

'amal-i Balchand
"work of Balchand"

8. Dying 'Inayat Khan |Fig.11|

By Balchand
Mughal, c. 1618
12.4 x 15.4 cm (painting)
Bodleian Library, Oxford (Ms. Ouseley Add. 171, f.4b)
Published: Crill and Jariwala 2010, pi. 18; Topsfield 2008, pi. 27
Inscribed (on the left corner of the sheet)
'amal-i Balchand banda-yi dargah
"the work of Balchand, the servant of the court"
(upper right, by Shahjahan)
Balchand
Both inscriptions are now almost completely effaced.

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 John Seyller Balchand

9. Jahangir wearing a tie-dyed patka 14. A'zam Khan captures Fort Dharur |Fig.u|
By Balchand By Balchand
Mughal, c. 1620 Padshahnama

19.1 x 10.3 cm (page), 18 x 9.35 cm (painting) Mughal, c. 1633

Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (In 45.1) 58.2 x 36.7 cm (page), 32.9 x 23 cm (illustration)
Published: Wright, Strange and Thackston 2008, no. 80, Leach The Royal Collection © 2008, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
1995, no. 3.64, pi. 72 (RCIN 1005025, f. 92b)
Published: Beach, Koch and Thackston 1997, pi. 15; Smart 1991,
Inscribed (lower right)
Balchand fig. 11

Inscribed (on the black shield with the crescent in the lower left)
10. Asaf Khan banda-yi dargah raqam-i Balchand pir-i ghulam
By Balchand "servant of the court, the work of Balchand, the aged slave"
From the Wantage Album
Mughal, c. 1620-1625 15. Three sons of Shahjahan riding |Fig.12[
39 x 26.3 cm (page), 15.1 x 8.5 cm (painting) By Balchand
Victoria and Albert Museum, London (IM. 120-1921) From the Minto Album

Published: Smart 1991, fig. 16: Pinder-Wilson, Smart and Barrett Mughal, c. 1634
1976, no. 128 38.8 x 26.5 cm (page), 23.8 x 16.9 cm (illustration)
Inscribed Victoria and Albert Museum, London (IM.13-1925)

'amal-i Balchand Published: Strange 2002, pi. 117; Smart 1991, fig. 14

"work of Balchand" Inscribed (at the base of the tree)

raqam-i Balchand banda-yi dargah
11. Portrait of Jahangir "the work of Balchand, the servant of the court"
By Balchand In the lower border by Shahjahan
Mughal, c. 1625 Balchand

55.1 x 34.5 cm (page), 5 X 4.1 cm (painting)

Aga Khan Museum Collection (MHO) 16. Jahangir receives Prince Khurram on his return from the
Published: Canby 1998a, no. 106: Goswamy and Fischer 1987, Mewar campaign [Fig.13|
no. 43 By Balchand
Padshahnama
Inscribed (on Jahangir's left arm)
Mughal, c. 1635
raqam-i Balchand
58.2 x 36.7 cm (page), 30.4 x 20,1 cm (painting)
"drawing of Balchand"
The Royal Collection © 2008, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
(RCIN 1005025, f. 43b)
12. JansiparBeg
Published: Beach, Koch and Thackston 1997, pi. 5; Smart 1991,
By Balchand
From the Kevorkian Album figs. 1-2; Losty 1982, pi.XXXII

Mughal, c. 1627 Inscribed (beneath the throne)

38.9 X 25.4cm (page), 13.1 X 7.7 cm (painting) banda-yi dargah raqam-i Balchand
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (55.121.10.37b) "servant of the court, the work of Balchand"
Published: Welch et al. 1987, no. 67
17. Prince Khurram attacks a lion
Inscribed (on the inner border by Shahjahan)
By Balchand
shabih-i Jansipar Khan 'amal-i Balchand
Padshahnama
"portrait of Jansipar Khan, work of Balchand"
Mughal, c. 1640
58.2 x 36.7 cm (page), 34 x 23.3 cm (painting)
13. Shahjahan and his three sons on a globe
The Royal Collection © 2008, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
By Balchand
From the Minto Album (RCIN 1005025, f. 135b)
Published: Beach, Koch and Thackston 1997, pi. 30; Smart 1991,
Mughal, c. 1628
fig. 12
38.9 x 27.2 cm (page), 23.2 x 14.8 cm (painting)
Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (In 07A.10) Inscribed (on the shield in the lower right)
Published: Wright, Strange and Thackston 2008, no. 46A; Allahu akbar. raqam-i Balchand pir-i ghulam
Leach 1995, no. 3.20 "God is great. The work of Balchand, the aged servant"

Inscribed (on the inner border by Shahjahan)

18. Lovers on a terrace (Murad Bakhsh and his wife)
'amal-i Balchand
"work of Balchand" By Balchand
Mughal, c. 1642
Museum of Islamic Art, Doha (MS. 47.2007)
Published: Smart 1991, fig. 9; Beach 1978, no. 31; Welch 1978a,
pi. 35

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 Inscribed 25. Shahjahan firing a matchlock
'amal-i Balchand Attributed to Balchand
"work of Balchand" Mughal, c. 1620
38.4 x 24.9cm (page), 10.2 x 11 cm (drawing)
19. A youth expires when his beloved approaches and speaks to Chester Beatty Library, Dublin In 11A.4.
him |Fig.9| Published: Wright, Stronge and Thackston 2008, no. 84;
By Balchand Jahangirnama 1999,315; Leach 1995, no. 3.65
Gulistan of Sa'di
Mughal, c. 1645 26. Princes of the House of Timur

24.5 X 16 cm (page) 10.5 x 6.7 cm (painting) One servant inscribed and another attributed, and the figures of
Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Akbar and Jahangir attributed
(F1998.5, f. 65a) Mughal, c. 1620
Published: Seyller 2010b, fig. 3; Soudavar and Beach 1992, 108.5 x 108 cm (painting)
no. 136d British Museum, London (1913,0208,0.1)

Inscribed (beneath horse) Published: Seyller 1994, fig. 16

raqam-i Balchand
"the work of Balchand" 27. Shahjahan hunting |Fig.15|
Attributed to Balchand
Padshahnama
Mughal, c. 1645
58.2 x 36.7 cm (page), 32.9 x 21.6 cm (illustration)
Important Attributed Works
The Royal Collection © 2008, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
20. Salim playing polo |Fig.2| (RCIN 1005025, f. 165a)
Attributed to Balchand Published: Beach, Koch and Thackston 1997, pi. 33
Diwan of Amir Hasan Dihlavi
Mughal, manuscript dated 1602
31.9 X 20.3cm (page), 22.5 X 11.9cm (painting)
The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore (W. 650, f.41a) Sources
Published: Seyller 2004, fig. 4 The only documentation for Balchand consists of inscriptions on paintings,
as listed above. There is no known reference to him in historical literature.
21. The Raj Kunwar observes four pairs of lovers |Fig.3|
Attributed to Balchand
1 Manuscript was written at Agra in AH 1014.
Raj Kunwar
Mughal, colophon dated 1603-1604
28.3 x 17 cm (page), 19 X 10.1 cm (written surface and painting)
Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (Ms. 37, f. 59b)
Published: Leach 1995, no. 2.74; Losty 1982, no. 74

22. Jesus and the arrogant hermit

Attributed to Balchand
Bustan of Sa'di, f. 101b
Mughal, dated 1605/06'
25.9 x 15.6 cm (page), 17.5 X 9.2 cm (painting)
Art and History Trust Collection
Published: Soudavar and Beach 1992, no. 137k

23. A youth is invited to join a banquet

Attributed to Balchand
Diwan of Hafiz
Mughal, c, 1611

14 x 9 cm (page), 10.2 x 9.2 cm (painting)

British Library, London (Or. 7573, f. 42a)
Published: Smart 1991, fig. 8: Barrett and Gray 1978,100

24. Dying 'Inayat Khan |Fig.l0j

Attributed to Balchand
Mughal, c. 1618
9.5 X 13.3 cm (drawing)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Francis Bartlett Donation of 1912
and Picture Fund (14.679)
Published: Crill and Jariwala 2010, no. 17; Cummins 2006, pi. 29

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 John Seyller Balchand

Style and Achievements alyst that ultimately led Balchand and Payag to adopt differ
The brothers Balchand and Payag stand out from the other ent approaches to composition and form was European art,
pairs of siblings active during the reigns of Akbar and Jahan which was embraced sporadically by the former and whole
gir by virtue of their comparable level of individual success heartedly by the latter.
and the degree to which their work is intertwined over their Both brothers joined the imperial atelier in the 1590s.
long careers.2 Balchand adheres more closely to the main Four folios of the 1595 Baharistan of Jami have separate as
stream Mughal style. He copies or refurbishes Persian paint criptions crediting Balchand with individual figures in the
ings on occasion, and consistently achieves a balance among border decoration and another artist with the medallions or
carefully drawn form, harmonious color, and fine detail. Pa sprawling landscape.3 This assignment implicitly acknowl
yag is the more original and idiosyncratic artist. He seems edges his familial connection and artistic potential, for no
disinterested in Persian effects, and displays a preference painter other than Manohar began his career with such a
for strong tonal contrast practically from the beginning of his privileged role on a de luxe manuscript. Nevertheless, Bal
career. As was the case with Abid and Abu'l Hasan, the cat chand's inexperience is evident in these simple border fig

Fig. 1 Akbar supervises the construction of Fatehpur Sikri Fig. 2 Salim playing polo

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Fig. 3 The Raj Kunwar observes four pairs of lovers

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 John Seyller Balchand

ures, which have small and squat bodies, formulaic facial

types with hard features, and thin coloring.
These qualities persist in his first paintings, a double
page illustration inthe 1596-1597 Akbarnama of Akbar over
seeing the construction of Fatehpur Sikri (Fig. 1 ).4 Balchand
employs a tiny figure scale, as if he were still restricting his
figures to a size customarily used in the narrow panels of
borders. This small scale allows him to include many activ
ities within the composition. Some are as generic as mixing
and carrying mortar and building walls and others as par
ticular as carving stone screens, plastering pavilions, and
selling pan. But the diffuse nature of the composition - an
other vestige of border decoration - has its drawbacks as
well, for there is such a surfeit of angles in the walls, ram
parts, colonnaded galleries, courtyards, and domestic build
ings that the architecture inadvertently works against com
positional coherence. The emperor, the customary focus of
attention in Akbarnama illustrations, is relegated to a distant
section below a structure surmounted by a royal tent. More
over, while Balchand identifies Akbar by giving him three at
tendants bearing royal insignia, he makes only a cursory at
tempt to have the emperor's features conform to those used
in his portraits elsewhere in the manuscript orto distinguish
him by means of regal garb or a richer surface. Over time,
he develops these traits so well that they become the defin
ing characteristics of his personal style.
The rift that opened up between Akbar and Prince
Salim in 1600 led a large splinter group within the imperial
atelier to accompany the rebellious prince to his court at
Allahabad. Although Balchand and Payag were among the
several journeymen in this coterie of artists, their paintings
at this satellite court lack ascriptions and thus have been
almost completely unnoticed. Balchand's work is easier to
isolate. His illustration in the 1602 Diwan of Amir Hasan Dih

lavi (Fig. 2) demonstrates a significant advance in technical Fig. 4 Sheikh al-lslam Ahmad al-Namiqi al-Jami attempts to fetch wine

proficiency in the five years since his Akbarnama illustration.

His figures remain small and compact, but have outgrown
their former squatness. Their facial features are drawn with 16th-century eastern Indian romance involving a lovelorn
much greater sophistication, albeit still with little expressive prince (Fig. 3). The Raj Kunwar or prince, traveling in the
ness. In this case, too, their bodies and horses have become guise of a kanphat yogi, searches for his beloved Mrigavat,
more solid as the artist applies colors and gold more liberally eventually reaching the splendid city of Kachinpur, where
and evenly. Balchand ventures into incidental royal portrai she has succeeded her father as ruler. In a hostel he wit
ture, obligingly transforming one player in a generic polo nesses four pairs of lovers. Salim, who was fond of this kind
match into Salim, whose likeness in this literary text bears of visual conceit, is cast as one of the paramours, though per
a strong resemblance to independent portraits by artists haps in a nod to decorum, is depicted still dressed and up
such as Manohar.5 right. Like Fig. 2, this painting combines small-scale figures,
Salim makes anothercameo appearance in Balchand's careful drawing, saturated colors, and flashes of gold. Bal
illustration in a manuscript of the 1603-1604 Raj Kunwar, a chand enhances one conventional sign of nighttime - a blue

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sky hung with a crescent moon - by blending the dark hue
with black around the contours of the building and by ren
dering the stars with tiny spatters of white paint rather than
with static geometric shapes. He sets up two covered can
dles on the building's raised base and a fully exposed one
in the interior, but still treats them as ornamental golden
forms; only in Payag's later work (see Fig. 11 in the essay on
Payag) do lit candles become sources of actual illumination.
Indeed, when Balchand does illuminate the blue-green inte
rior of the hostel, he does so by other means, namely by ring
ing it with gleaming objects such as pillows and vessels and
by grazing some walls with a layer of gold paint so delicate
that it picks up the grain of the paper. Balchand dramatizes
these effects by enveloping them in architectural forms that
have both the crispness and solidity of the mundane world
and the unearthly colors of the enchanted one.
These two illustrations, which represent the apogee of
Balchand's work at Allahabad, allow us to discern his hand
in another little-known manuscript. An illustration of Rustam
in combat in a Kultiyat (Collected Works) of Sa'di is simpler
in style, but once again can be identified as Balchand's work
by virtue of its small figure scale, Rustam's fine face, the
horses, and the palette.6
Balchand's reintegration into the imperial workshop in
1605 is documented in a painting in the Nafahatal-Uns, a bio
graphical compendium of religious figures whose colophon
indicates that it was copied in Agra for Akbar by the eminent
royal calligrapher 'Abd al-Rahim in regnal year 49, corre
sponding to March 1604-March 1605 (Fig. 4). Written imme
diately after the ascription to Balchand is the word awwal
("first class"), a designation that affords a rare qualitative as
sessment of a particular work of art as well as a measure
of Balchand's standing as an artist. Here, Balchand forgoes
the full chromatic harmonies of Fig. 3 to return to the tinted
melody of his Akbarnama paintings, an aesthetic choice that Fig. 5 Courtiers attend a royal reception

reflects both his versatility as an artist and the lingering if

waning appeal of the nimqalam ("half-colored") manner.The
architecture, a continuous screen of structures in the back This drinking scene is complemented by another in a
ground, functions as a conventional backdrop for the negli Diwan of Nawa'i, one of several Persian manuscripts acce
gible action: a wayward sheikh thwarted by an abstemious sioned by the Mughal library at the end of the 16th century
ass from succumbing further to the temptations of wine. But and refurbished in the imperial atelier soon after Salim's
Balchand is evidently still enamored of angles, and makes accession as Jahangir in October 1605 (Fig.5).7 Balchand,
the dais on which the drinkers sit both unusually wide and whose name is ascribed minutely below the wide band of
conspicuously hexagonal. He is so eager to accentuate the illumination bracketing this left half of the double-page com

angles of its sides that he invents devices to repeat them - position, is relieved from compositional concerns as he is
an impractically slanted wall extension and a pair of over directed to leave intact the Timurid architecture and land
sized doors in the foreground - and inadvertently blocks the scape. He reworks every figure, an action evident from the
obstinate donkey from moving under any circumstance. discolored areas around their contours, the peculiarly dimin

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 John Seyller Balchand

cr'y'>Vci?u 1'

two scenes from Persian literature. One, from a dispersed

Shahnama manuscript, shows a white-bearded Firdausi, the
venerable author of the text, with his spectacles, pen and
inkwell, and an open book laid out before him as he discuss
es life and poetry with three guests (Fig.6).8 Inscribed on that
book is a court poet's plea for largesse: "How well did Rus
tam, the master of Rakhsh, say, 'If you want fame, be liberal
with money'!"9 The ascription in the margin below offers an
other means to renown, for it reads "work of Balchand and
his brother," a phrase that records for posterity the only
known collaboration between Balchand and Payag, notably
giving priority to the former, which has been taken to be ev
idence that he is the older sibling.10 Yet from what we know
of Balchand's oeuvre between 1606 and 1611, including a
second illustration in the manuscript, Balchand earned the
distinction of first mention here by the proportion of actual
work, for he can be credited with the four central figures as
well as the architecture, trees, hexagonal dais, and garden.11
The elders show the most marked development, now glanc
ing at and gesticulating toward each other in a naturalistic
manner even as their faces and hands become convincingly
three-dimensional forms. Indeed, only the two young atten
dants on the dais, whose faces have the shape and texture
of an egg and whose features are severe and dark, can be
assigned to Payag.12
Balchand's sole independent painting in the Jahangir
Album, a magisterial compilation of paintings and calli
graphic specimens begun in 1599 and produced over at
least two decades, depicts a story made famous by Sa'di:
the wrestling prodigy getting his comeuppance from his
master, who defeats him in a match by using the one trick
he had withheld from his training.13 In this painting, which is
signed on a rock at the base of the chenar tree, Balchand
imitates a Persian model in every aspect, deviating from an
early 16th-century Safavid style only in the slightly more
supple clothing of the slender figures and the more natura
Fig. 6 Firdausi discusses poetry with friends listic rendering of their faces. More representative of his
work in this period are the borders of several folios in the
ished scale of the inebriated outcast and his adamant guard, Jahangir Album decorated with tiny figural vignettes, some
and the presence of figures with soft Mughal-style features with imagery derived from contemporary paintings and
and relaxed clothing. These last traits foster a sense of mass others with original motifs and groupings such as a servant
and potential movement, and combined with the greater ex plying a drunken prince with food.14 Anchoring the attribu
pressiveness of faces seen in three-quarter view, hint at the tions is one signed folio in Berlin that shows two princely
humanity that will come to flicker within most of the artist's figures watching several figures write, burnish, and bind
figures. specimens of calligraphy (Fig. 7). The signature - one of four
Balchand puts his first-hand experience with a high microscopic inscriptions on the folio - appears on an open
quality Timurid painting to good use over the next few years, book before the bearded figure in the lower left corner.15
employing grid-like Persian architecture as a backdrop for These eight lightly tinted figures continue the compactness

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 ISM
I

-M £&*

IP

\{^wy^ ijjjtijjj^r^is '^y.

Fig. 7 Borders of a folio with calligraphy by Faqir 'Ali

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 John Seyller Balchand

and refinement of Balchand's earlier work; indeed, several upon their first exchange of words. Balchand largely avoids
faces compare so closely to those of the drinkers in his Nafa familiar Indian or Persian types in order to simulate a world
hat al-Uns illustration (Fig. 4) that this border must date to keenly observed. In fact, his portrayal of a youth reduced by
about 1606.16 love to a shockingly forlorn state is filled with details gleaned
Sa'di's tale of the tragically unrequited love of a youth from northern European art, including a pose derived from
for a handsome prince is the subject of two closely related a Lamentation scene, a wide, stubble-covered face, a rough
illustrations ascribed to Balchand (Figs.8 and 9). The two tunic, a ruined well, and two massive intertwined trees with
paintings, which have unusual physical histories as well as hatched shading.18 Several other figures, too, are indebted
a common Persian model, are remarkable for the artist's to European sources, as is evident from their exotic facial
captivating expression of human pathos and his changing structures and headwear. Balchand disguises the foreign
blend of Persian and European elements. The first work (Fig. ness of these particular passages by also rendering such or
8) belongs to a Gulistan manuscript that was produced dinary forms as bodies and horses in a similarly naturalistic
about 1610-1615 but cannibalized as early as the 1640s, style that is dominated by exceptionally smooth surfaces
when this illustration and two others were first excised from and volumes with clear and subtly rounded contours.
written folios and then enlarged by another artist to make Balchand takes up this subject again some thirty years
them into panels decorating a mirror case.17 The scene de later, a commission precipitated by water damage to the
picts the poignant moment when the abject youth is literally Persian manuscript and illustration that had once been his
dying to meet the object of his obsession, actually expiring model (Fig. 9).19 Because he is painting directly over the dam

Fig. 8 A youth expires when his beloved approaches and speaks to him Fig. 9 A youth expires when his beloved approaches and speaks to him

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Fig. 10 Dying 'Inayat Khan

I —.
Fig. 11 Dying "Inayat Khan

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 John Seyller Balchand

aged scene, Balchand adheres to the original composition; The painting, though often considered less riveting
he positions the mounted prince and the hopelessly smitten emotionally, actually reveals more about the state of Bal
youth closer together, eliminates the two mounted compan chand's artistry (Fig. 11). The painter is still eager to convin
ions, and reduces the five attendants to one.20 More impor ce viewers of the authenticity of the likeness, but downplays
tant, with European motifs and techniques no longer the nov some anatomical details to make a stronger image. He
elty they were in the early 17th century, the artist embraces straightens 'Inayat Khan's ravaged torso to a nearly upright
the Persian models at hand, an approach Payag follows in position, removes his navel, splays the fingers of his right
the same manuscript, albeit with much less enthusiasm.21 hand, and restructures his neck to include a prominent
Indeed, Balchand's naturalistic tendencies abate so much Adam's apple as well as an anatomically impossible doubled
here that while the faces, tree, and sky are still recognizably neck muscle. He visits more obvious changes on the setting.
Mughal in appearance, they assume the stylized, decorative Balchand keeps the many cushions and bolsters in place,
quality of Persian painting. This is most noticeable in the but tips up those in pale blue and dark green from a nearly
youth, who lies in roughly the same pose and dress as be horizontal position so that the latter pitches downward at an
fore, but now appears alert and merely resting against a tree. angle that is then linked to the bulky white bolster at 'Inayat
Balchand's most famous painting is one that has been Khan's feet. This adjustment reminds us of Balchand's pen
identified as his work only recently (Fig. 11).22 It is the portrait chant for angles, which here create a segmented pyramid
of 'Inayat Khan, the Mughal paymaster-general, who cut that has 'Inayat Khan's head below its apex, the newly flar
short his life not by some fanciful romantic fixation but by a ing sheet at its left corner, and the prominent black tassels
real-world addiction to opium and alcohol. In his memoirs of at its right. The room itself complements the dynamic bal
early October 1618, Jahangir, who within a few years became ance achieved among body, sheet, and cushions. A darkened
incapacitated as a result of his own addiction to these drugs, doorway placed just right of center presses down on the
wrote this astonishing eyewitness account of his close ser green bolster and terminates visually with the dark blue pil
vant in the throes of death: low supporting the figure's knees. The felt rug and dado on
the left serve as a counterweight within the chamber, but are
He looked incredibly weak and thin. "Skin stretched eliminated on the right to keep open the space opposite the
over bone." Even his bones had begun to disintegrate. dying man. Balchand's technical mastery is evident in the
Whereas painters employ great exaggeration when narrow shading along the crisply drawn architectural lines
they depict skinny people, nothing remotely resembling and in the elliptical surface of the liquid within the half
him had ever been seen. Good God! How can a human empty bottles in niches. And his palette-which ranges from
being remain alive in this shape?... It was so strange an icy blue-gray to tan to yellow and maroon - is so exquisite
that I ordered the artists to draw his likeness... He died that it mitigates the specter of impending death.
the second day.23 Balchand's inventiveness and skill in more traditional
forms of portraiture are manifested in his painting of Shah
Summoned to record this physical spectacle, Balchand pre jahan's three younger sons (Fig. 12). Designed to appear
pared both a preliminary sketch and finished painting (Figs. opposite an equestrian portrait of the emperor and his eld
10 and 11). In the former (Fig.10) - arguably the high point est son, Dara Shikoh (1615-1659), in the Minto Album, the
of Mughal empiricism - Balchand dwells on his subject's work arrays the three princes in order of age, with Murad
emaciated body and gaunt face, revealing the ribcage, col Bakhsh (8 September 1624-1661) riding the piebald, Au
larbone, and neck muscle. These anatomical features are rangzeb (4 November 1618-1707) the dun, and Shah Shuja'
embedded in a network of markings that spills onto the (23 June 1616-1660) the bay.24 Supported by the band of
sleeve, surprisingly tight-fitting shirt, and adjacent cushions, dense and very naturalistic vegetation along the ascending
so that the body looks to be dissolving into the sheet and ground line and backed by an unobtrusive, reduced-scale
cushions. The bony hands and pale blue eye stand out, the tree, the three brothers are mounted on horses standing
former resting lightly on a cushion, and the latter fixed in a close together in nearly identical poses. Balchand's prefer
vacant stare. The drawing appears to be a direct study, with ence for evenly spaced forms finds expression in the horses'

minor signs of correction and strengthening in the head staggered arrangement, which allows for an unimpeded
wear, jaw, left arm, right hand, and covered feet attesting to view of each prince, minimizes the potential clutter of equine
the freshness of the observations. legs, and sets up a compelling rhythm of the horses' heads,

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shoulders, and tails. To maintain this stepped progression,
the artist manipulates the difference in size among the prin
ces so that Murad Bakhsh is dwarfed by both Aurangzeb and
Shah Shuja' despite their greater distance from the viewer.25
Baichand is exceedingly meticulous about the rendering of
hands and faces, and distinguishes the princes by complex
ion, the relative fullness of their nascent mustaches, and
even the growth pattern of their hair.26 Indeed, the state of
their mustaches suggests a date of late 1634, when Aurang
zeb would have been almost sixteen. Two other features of .. StL* W
note are the inclusion of a practically undetectable signature
on the light bark of the chenar tree, and the structure of
the landscape, which merges a flattened Persian-style pas
tel-colored zone with a distant horizon shot through with
such European-inspired motifs as atmospherically lightened
buildings and stippled trees, and overshadowed by a heavy
bank of clouds.27 The last of these is almost certainly in
spired by the work of his brother, who features this motif in
many of his works.
Three of Balchand's five illustrations in the Padshah
nama demonstrate his strengths and weaknesses in portrai
ture and landscape painting (Figs. 13-15).28 Though painted
c. 1635, one depicts an important event of 1615, when Jahan
gir received Prince Khurram (the future Shahjahan) with
honors upon his victory over Rana Amar Singh of Mewar
(Fig. 13). Like many artists, Baichand is susceptible to ana
chronistic lapses in such historicizing scenes, in this case
endowing the prince with the full beard that he wore for
most of his life but not in 1615,29 and incorporating a few
Shahjahan-period architectural details such as the floral
dado.30 He minimizes the inevitable disparities in the scale >» -1:-1

of nobles' portraits and varies their orientation and poses Fig. 12 Three sons of Shahjahan riding

enough to leaven the regimented formality of the durbar.

Nevertheless, Balchand's figures are naturalistic more in muted floral imagery and slatted texture of the decorative
detail than in demeanor, so that while most persuade us of bamboo blinds hanging in the balcony's doorways.31 Once
their immediacy with such unidealized facial features as again Balchand exercises a refined palette, scattering a few
pockmarks or double chins, here they convey little sense of passages of bright color across a compositional grid under
physical or psychological interaction among themselves, pinned by a golden railing and canopy supports and domi
and sometimes resemble expressionless mannequins. The nated by unusual secondary colors cut with gray or white.
emperor and prince, for example, extend wooden gestures Set against a patchwork of evenly sized forms are the head
in a lifeless embrace, and the flag bearer scurrying away and shoulder of a majestic elephant - very probably the
from the elephant simply looks to have his head on back Ranas prized 'Alam Guman - that Balchand renders with
wards. Baichand compensates for this corporeal stiffness such exceptional tonal, coloristic, and textural nuance that
by truly excelling at surfaces. Few Mughal artists capture the he may justifiably lay claim to the finest elephant portrait in
appearance of cloth so well as it stretches over bulky bodies all of Mughal painting.32 He does this not only with an ascrip
or bunches at the ankles, or the intricate patterns and sheen tion written in two discreet cartouches on the wall below
of carpets and fine textiles woven from golden threads. And the throne, but also with his only self-portrait in the oppo
no one else but his brother is fastidious enough to depict the site lower corner. He depicts himself with painter's portfolio

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 John Seyller Balchand

—*m

Fig. 13 Jahangir receives Prince Khurram on his return from the Mewar campaign

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in hand and in a modestly smaller scale than the nobles be ers of observation are neutralized selectively by imperial
side him, cutting a slight and implausibly youthful figure for convention, with the only sign of Shahjahan's ten-year differ
a man who, with forty years of painting behind him, should ence in age being a beard gone gray; conversely, Dara Shikoh
be about fifty-four years old.33 is recast so thoroughly that the prince looks less like his ear
In A'zam Khan captures Fort Dharur (Fig. 14), Balchand lier portrait than his father at a younger age.34 But all the
tries his hand at the panoramic landscape, a genre in which figures here are eclipsed by the antelope, whose varied
his brother is a true pioneer. This signed work has approxi poses and attitudes Balchand records with astonishing sen
mately the same pictorial structure as Payag's The siege of sitivity, and by the tawny terrain, which is punctuated by a
Qandahar (see Fig. 7 in the essay on Payag), with a series of captivating assortment of clumps of grass, mounds, and
ridges sloping down to the right, a large fortress looming in stands of trees as it unfolds toward the distant glowing hori
the upper left, and a few domestic buildings set back in the zon. Gradually we realize that the scale of these forms in the
upper right. Balchand deploys the small-scale royal troops foreground is not entirely systematic, swelling and shrinking
in bands of four to thirteen soldiers, which he then distrib not according to the laws of visual perception but to a dis
utes quite evenly about the composition; only one horseman tinctive aesthetic sensibility that prizes evenness and bal
- presumably A'zam Khan - is isolated enough to stand out ance. It is no accident, for example, that the one large tree in
on the predictably layered ochre field. As in his Akbamama the work is placed directly opposite the emperor and his en
illustration (Fig. 1), there are plenty of moderately inventive tourage.35 Only in the painting's midsection are all the ani
actions, including a lone soldier hauling himself up the inner mals, trees, and figures reduced to a much diminished scale.
ramparts, two others rushing forward with a rope and scal Even then, that scale is somewhat inconsistent, with the deer
ing ladder to join the assault, and an ambitiously foreshort at a given distance ranging from merely small to truly mi
ened figure groveling on the ground with a bandaged but nuscule. To add genre interest Balchand zooms in on three
bloody stump of a leg. After taking in these minor details, as figures in the upper right. One drives a team of cattle to draw
well as the minuscule stick figures defending the furthest water from a well overseen by another figure, a motif Bal
ramparts and the brilliant flags and standards brightening chand repeats twice at a still smaller scale. The third figure,
the scene, we can make three more comprehensive obser a radically foreshortened washerman, is a menial reprise of
vations. One is that the active situation prompts Balchand to the wounded warrior in the artist's earlier Padshahnama
break with habits developed in the realm of portraiture and illustration (Fig. 14). Thus, in a work created near the end
to depict figures that move with greater ease and purpose. of his career, Balchand emulates his more flamboyant and
A second is that he deviates only rarely from the principle idiosyncratic brother in his use of effects as foreign as fore
that the view of an individual figure should be clear and un shortened figures and sweeping vistas, and a motif as per
obstructed; even in the tumult of battle only one horseman sonal as rabbits by a stream.36 But for Balchand these things
in the left foreground and three tiny ones to the right of the are nothing more than borrowed flourishes, for he remains
fort have their faces obscured in any way. And third, unlike steadfast in his conviction of the inherent beauty of clear
Payag, Balchand gravitates toward tempered expressions forms, meticulous detail, traditionally balanced composi
and an even tonality. tions, and even lighting.
Balchand makes a far more original and successful at
tempt at the panoramic landscape in a Padshahnama scene
of c. 1645 that depicts Shahjahan hunting at sunrise (Fig. 15).
2 These are Daulat, Da'ud, and Kishandas, the sons of La'l; Miskin and
The emperor, sporting a radiant halo but dressed in ca
'Asi, the sons of Mahesh; Muhammad Sharif and Bihzad, the sons of
mouflage green like his companions, Prince Dara Shikoh and 'Abd al-Samad; and 'Abid and Abu'l Hasan, the sons of Aqa Riza.
two important nobles, prepares his shot by resting one arm 3 Folios 17a, 33b, 44b, and 60b. The last of these is published in Seyller

on an upraised knee and by using an attendant's shoulder 2001b, fig. 62.

4 The left half of the composition is published in Smart 1991, fig. 4.

and a cord attached to the barrel to steady the long gun bar
5 See, for example, Prince Salim enthroned (Fig. 11 in the essay on Man
rel. Before him is a herd of antelope, most resting peacefully sur).

alongside a stream and amid groves, and only one creature 6 Kuliiyat of Sa'di, f. 148b, Bodleian Library, Oxford, Ouseley Add. 175. As
is the case with the other illustrations in the manuscript, the upper
bolting in alarm. The hunters are outsized, and with the ex
and lower quarters of the present miniature were repainted in the late
ception of the one crouching before a shrub, are positioned 18th century. Three paintings from the manuscript are reproduced in
at regular intervals as though at a durbar. Balchand's pow Bodleian Library 1958, figs. 16-18.

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 John Seyller Balchand

MBHH

t" it JU

Fig. 14 A'zam Khan captures Fort Dharur

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 7 The manuscript, originally written by the famous Sultan 'Ali and illus 22 Jahangirnama 1999, 280-281.
trated in Herat, c. 1501-1510, probably for Sultan Husain Bayqara, is 23 Smart 1998.
discussed fully in Seyller forthcoming 2011. 24 Stronge 2002,153 and pi. 95. Shahjahan himself wrote the inscription
8 A list of paintings from this dispersed manuscript is provided in Leach in the lower border. A later copy of the painting is in the Bodleian Li
1986, no. 21, and Leach 1995, vol. 1:327-329. The outer border of this brary, Ms. Douce Or. a.1, f. 24b. The ages of the three brothers help fix
page is decorated with scrolled grape vines interspersed with medal the date of the facing work, which has Murar's anachronistic portrait
lions filled with birds. of Shahjahan's beardless face pasted over Manohar's original like
9 The Persian reads "chi khwash guft Rustam khudavand-i Rakhsh agar ness of Jahangir, and one of Dara Shikoh applied over the original
nam khwahi diram-ra bibakhsh." I am grateful to Wheeler Thackston head of the trailing prince, who was probably the actual Shahjahan.
for providing this transliteration and translation. Rakhsh is the fabu 25 Balchand again renders Murad Bakhsh as especially short in another
lous three-eyed crimson steed of Rustam, a protagonist in the Shah contemporary painting (Padshahnama, f. 72b, published in Beach,
nama who ironically is known for his heroic exploits and not his mu Koch and Thackston 1997, pi. 14). By comparison, despite their six-year
nificence. difference in age, Shah Shuja' and Murad Bakhsh are depicted by
10 Beach, Koch and Thackston 1997, 213, note 1. Murar as nearly equal in stature in Padshahnama, f. 122b, which illus
11 The Shahnama painting is reproduced in Falk 1976, no. 88ii. Two other trates an event of 12 February 1633, or about a year and a half earlier.
paintings also make instructive comparisons. One, attributed here, is The painting is reproduced in Beach, Koch and Thackston 1997, pi. 23.
Jesus and the arrogant hermit, Bustan of Sa'di, f. 101b, dated AH 1014/ 26 The prince in Lovers on a terrace (Private Collection, published in Welch
1605-1606, Art and History Trust Collection, published in Soudavar 1978a, pi. 35), has been identified as Shah Shuja', but is here re-iden
and Beach 1992, no. 137k. The other is A youth is invited to join a ban tified as Murad Bakhsh on the basis of the prince's depiction as a four
quet, Diwan of Hafiz, f.42a, c. 1611, British Library, Or. 7573, published teen-year-old in Padshahnama, f. 147b (Beach, Koch and Thackston
in Barrett and Gray 1978,100. 1997, pi. 32, upper right corner); Shahjahan receives a Persian ambas
12 Payag's figures in attributed manuscript illustrations paintings of the sador by Payag (Bodleian Library, Oxford, Ms. Ouseley Add. 173, f. 13b,
late 1590s and the Allahabad studio generally have harder, more published in Topsfield 2008, no. 33); and Murad Bakhsh and Aurangzeb
darkly articulated features. For two figures with a strong resemblance (British Museum, 1920,0917,0.287.a, published in Rogers 1993, pi.80).
to the cupbearer in the upper right, see the polo player in the lower If the age of the somewhat pudgy and effeminate prince in Lovers on
right in Fig. 3 (in the essay on Payag), and the wading prince in Leach a terrace is estimated to be about eighteen because of his light mus
1995, no. 2.44. The servant's face is also more severe than that of a tache, that would also redate the portrait from c. 1633 to c. 1642, when
similar figure in the upper right corner of Fig. 7, which is signed by it would coincide with his marriage in July 1642. This later date also
Balchand. accords with the atmospheric treatment of the level-view landscape.
13 Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow, Inv.no.587-II, published in Smart 27 The inscription, written in faint black directly behind the tail of Murad
1991, fig. 5. Bakhsh's horse, reads from bottom to top raqam-i Balchand banda-yi
14 Gulshan Album (Gulistan Palace Library, Tehran, Ms. 1663-4), ff. 40, dargah (the work of Balchand, the servant of the court).
181,249, and 273. 28 The other two ascribed paintings are ff. 72b and 135b, published in
15 The inscription does not follow the customary formulaic expressions. Beach, Koch and Thackston 1997, pis. 14 and 30. An additional painting
The Persian reads "amal-i Balchand musawwir... dast... dit-i Jahangir (f. 165a) attributed here is reproduced as Fig. 15.
Padshah..." ("work of Balchand the painter... Jahangir Padshah "). 29 This change in fashion is documented in a painting by Abu'l Hasan in
Other incompletely decipherable inscriptions appear on the book scribed by Shahjahan (5 January 1592 to February 1666) as follows:
stand in the upper right ("...Jahangir") and on the paper being written "This is good likeness [of me] in my twenty-fifth year." The painting
on by the calligrapher in the upper left. Remarkably, the words he pens (Victoria and Albert Museum IM.14-1925), which shows the prince
are exactly those of the first couplet of the large calligraphic specimen with a mustache rather than a beard, is published in Stronge 2002, pi.
by Faqir 'Ali in the center of the folio. A minuscule inscription on the 93. Other artists, including Payag, show an awareness of that fashion
paper being burnished in the lower right has yet to be deciphered. in their own Padshahnama illustrations of events from 1615 to 1617
16 The use of the post-accession name of Jahangir in two inscriptions (see Payag essay Fig. 8).
places it after October 1605. 30 This point is established by Koch in Beach, Koch and Thackston 1997,
17 The painting and mirror case are discussed fully ih Seyller 2010b. 162.

18 The closest model is Albrecht Durer's Lamentation of 1521, a woodcut 31 See Fig. 9 in essay on Payag and compare a painting by Murar {Pad
in which the dead Christ assumes a very similar pose. The crown of shahnama, f.49a, published in Beach, Koch and Thackston 1997, pi. 8),
thorns and the detached INRI sign (Titulus Crucis) have been trans 32 This elephant, which is mentioned by name in the preceding Padshah
formed into a rudimentary well opening and a fallen pulley, and the nama passage, is depicted in an inscribed portrait on loan from the
shadows around Christ's legs into the brown cloak beneath the figure. Delhi Fort Museum to the National Museum (DFM L49) and published
19 The manuscript, a Timurid copy of the Gulistan of Sa'di dated 7-16 in Das 1999, fig. 10. Another portrait of the same creature (The Met
November 1468, was acquired by the Mughals early in Akbar's reign, ropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1996.98a) is inscribed with his
and was presented to a prominent Mughal noble, Mun'im Khan Khan name and a valuation of Rs. 100,000, the highest value assigned to any
khanan, in AH 975/1567-1568. See Soudavar and Beach 1992, 332— elephant in Mughal India.
334, for accounts of this gift and the accident in 1644 that must have 33 Though Balchand must have painted a retrospective self-portrait, he
caused the water damage. nonetheless felt his age, for he signed two other Padshahnama illus
20 Balchand's original composition had four standing attendants; the trations (see, for example, Fig. 14), "work of Balchand, the aged ser
fifth, who appears in the lower right, was added by Murar to fill out vant."

the enlarged composition. 34 Compare Padshahnama, f. 72b, published in Beach, Koch and Thack
21 Gulistan of Sa'di, f. 60a, published in Soudavar and Beach 1992, no. ston 1997, pi. 14.
136c.

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 John Seyller Balchand

Fig. 15 Shahjahan hunting

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35 This point is made by Ebba Koch in Beach, Koch and Thackston 1997,
193, though she sees it as a manifestation of the hierarchical principles
of Shahjahani painting rather than one of an individual artist's style.
36 Excellent details showing the two brothers' charming depictions of
rabbits are published in Beach, Koch and Thackston 1997, figs. 54
and 58,

Selected Bibliography
Beach, Milo Cleveland. The Grand Mogul: Imperial Painting in India, 1600
1660. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute,
1978,95-101.
Beach, Milo Cleveland; Koch, Ebba and Thackston, Wheeler. King of the
World. The Padshahnama, an Imperial Mughal Manuscript from the
Royal Library, Windsor Castle. London and Washington: Azimuth Edi
tions/Thames & Hudson and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 1997,213 and
related entries.
Leach, Linda York. Mughal and Other Indian Paintings from the Chester
Beatty Library. London: Scorpion Cavendish, 1995, 2:1098-1099 and
related entries.
Okada, Amina. Indian Miniatures of the Mughal Court. New York: Harry N.
Abrams, 1992,206-215.
Seyller, John. "The Walters Art Museum Diwan of Amir Hasan Dihlavi and
Salim's Atelier at Allahabad." In ^rfs of Mughal India: Studies in Honour
of Robert Skelton, edited by Rosemary Crill, Susan Stronge and An
drew Topsfield. London/Ahmedabad: Victoria and Albert Museum/
Mapin, 2004,95-110.
Seyller, John. "Two Mughal Mirror Cases." Journal of the David Collection
III (2010b): 130-159.
Smart, Ellen." Balchand." In Master Artists of the Imperial Mughal Court, ed
ited by Pratapaditya Pal. Bombay: Marg Publications, 1991,135-148.
Smart, Ellen. "The Death of Inayat Khan by the Mughal Artist Balchand." Art
ibus Asiae 58/3-4 (1998): 273-276.
Verma, Som Prakash. Mughal Painters and Their Work. A Biographical Sur
vey and Comprehensive Catalogue. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994,
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