1 The Gentil Receuil in the Victoria and Albert Museum
A volume compiled by Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Gentil (1726â1799) was acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1980. Its place and date of completion are recorded on the title page:
Receuil de toutes sortes de Dessins sur les Usages et coutumes des Peuples de lâindoustan ou Empire Mogol dâaprès plusieurs peintres Indiens Névasilal, Mounsingue &.c au service du Nabab Visir Soudjaatdaula Gouverneur géneral des provinces dâEléabad et dâAvad. lequel recueil a été fait par les soins du Sr Gentil Colonel dâInfanterie; en 1774 a Faisabad.1
The seal impression next to it provides Gentilâs Persian titles and the Hijri date 1182 (1768/69). None of the fifty-eight illustrations bound between worn leather covers is signed by the artists named in Gentilâs notice but the contents, date and provenance make the volume a significant document for the study of the political and cultural history of Awadh in the early 1770s.2
Gentil was born in the Languedoc in 1726 and arrived in India in 1752 to join the army of the French Compagnie des Indes before serving various Indian princes in their campaigns against the English. In 1763, the year the French were forced by the British to withdraw their military forces from India, he became military advisor to Nawab ShujaÊ¿ al-Dawla (r. 1754â1775) in the politically important and wealthy province of Awadh, living in the capital, Faizabad, and retaining his position until the nawabâs death in 1775. The main source for his life is his own memoirs that were published posthumously by his son.3
These demonstrate the respect that he and the nawab had for each other. The title page of the V&A volume implies that Gentil was sufficiently regarded to be able to use the nawabâs artists for his own projects.4 His loyalty to ShujaÊ¿ al-Dawla is equally evident in his memoirs, but they also demonstrate his profound allegiance to the French nation throughout his Indian career. This is a significant theme of the V&A Receuil.
The stern warnings that would have been seen immediately by anyone opening the volume leave no doubt that Gentil intended it to be scrutinised by a French-speaking, educated audience: âLes personnes qui parcourriront ce recueil sont priées de ne pas toucher les peintures avec les doigtsâ (Those who will run through this album are begged not to touch the paintings with their fingers); and âSint tibi mille oculi; Sit tibi nulla manus â¦.â (You may use a thousand eyes but not your hand). Annotations in black ink on the paintings are in French and would have been written by Gentil in India; others, providing more extensive explanations and again exclusively in French, are in Gentilâs hand and one other, written on paper pasted on to the pages opposite the paintings. All this suggests the volume was intended to be studied in France, as were the many other paintings he collected for presentation to the French king, Louis XVI, and to selected scholars.5
Parallels between the choice of subjects in the album and Gentilâs memoirs indicate that the illustrations were made to complement the writing, as first suggested by Jean-Marie Lafont.6 The illustrated maps he commissioned in Awadh likewise had a written counterpart; both were presented to Louis XVI in 1785.7
In 1774 when the V&A volume was completed, Gentil was in his late forties, had a considerable income derived from his employment by the nawab, and had recently married. That year, he had taken part in ShujaÊ¿âs last military campaign when the nawab supported the English in a war against the Rohillas (as did Major Antoine-Louis-Henri Polier, see below). ShujaÊ¿, ill and probably worn out by the campaign, retired first to Lucknow at the end of 1774 and then to Faizabad where he died on 26 January 1775 aged only forty-five.8 English pressure on ShujaÊ¿âs son and successor Asaf al-Dawla (r. 1775â1797) to expel from his court foreigners in general and Gentil in particular led to the Frenchmanâs departure the following month with his wife, children, mother- and brother-in-law.9 They accompanied him to France when he left India for good in 1777.
Under ShujaÊ¿ al-Dawlaâs twenty-year rule, Faizabad had been the cosmopolitan capital of one of the most prosperous provinces of the rapidly collapsing Mughal empire. The Europeans living there included Gentil and (from April 1773) Polier, both of whom moved easily between cultures, visiting each otherâs houses and the dwellings of the nawab and his nobles. Gentilâs marriage in 1772 to the aristocratic Teresa Velho (d. 1778) at Faizabad also hints at his comfort within the courtly Muslim environment that surrounded him. Like Gentil, his wife was a Catholic. She was a grand-niece of Juliana Dias da Costa, a woman of Portuguese descent born in 1658, had supervised the imperial zanana of the emperor Ê¿Alamgir (r. 1658â1707) and later exerted great influence at the court of Shah Ê¿Alam I (r. 1707â1712).10
Gentilâs Receuil surveys some of the salient aspects of the history and culture of northern India from the late sixteenth century to his own time there and opens with a series of depictions and descriptions of institutions of the Mughal court. The first lightly coloured drawing portrays the various ranks of the imperial Mughal hierarchy, from the (unnamed) emperor and his vizier to the supervisors of the different offices of state, ending with the supervisor of gardens (fig. 6.1). The minuscule figures typical of the volume are arranged here in a grid with emblems of royalty in the lower register. Some hold attributes associated with their role: the librarian holds a book, the master of the wardrobe holds a turban, the supervisor of the kitchens holds a covered vessel and salver, and so on. Each is identified by short descriptive lines written in black ink by Gentil; some have numbers that correspond to the explanatory key opposite.11 Faint pencil notations in French identifying each figure indicate that Gentil supervised the layout of the page, clearly working side by side with his artists. Previously unnoticed, equally faint inscriptions above each individual written in a very neat, minute kaithÄ« script transcribing the Persian title also identify each figure. For example, the âgrand maître des Elephantsâ or Supervisor of the Elephants is captioned darogha fil khana (fig. 6.2), and the âbibliotecaireâ or librarian is identified as the darogha ketabkhana (fig. 6.3).12
Figure 6.1
The Mughal emperor and the office holders of his court, from a volume assembled by Gentil with illustrations by Nevasi Lal, Mohan Singh and other unidentified artists, annotated by Gentil in French, Awadh (Uttar Pradesh), Faizabad, 1774
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, IS.25:1-1980
The second drawing depicts the coronation and birthday weighing ceremonies of the Mughal emperor. The array of nobles, servants and musicians arranged hierarchically around him are again all numbered and identified on the page opposite.13
The sparseness of the composition contrasts sharply with the richly coloured scene with touches of gold that follows (fig. 6.4). Here, Shah Jahan (r. 1628â1658) is shown sitting on the spectacular Jewelled Throne that he commissioned on his accession from Saʾida Gilani (active c. 1605â1658), the remarkable Iranian supervisor of the imperial goldsmithsâ department who had held the same position under Jahangir (r. 1605â1627). The emperorâs features are recognisable from portraits of his reign and the many later stock images of him. The tent canopies and carpet are rendered with unusual attention to detail and depth of colour compared with the other illustrations. The text opposite describes the history of the throne, paraphrasing or copying verbatim passages from Gentilâs Mémoires.14 Its accuracy shows that Gentil drew on the Persian histories of Shah Jahanâs reign where, as here, Saʾida Gilani is referred to as Bibadal Khan, the honorific meaning âthe incomparableâ that was bestowed on him by Jahangir.15 Gentil would have taken from these sources the details concerning the exact quantities and types of stones set into the throne, including the famous dynastic spinel Shah Jahan was given by his father that was engraved with the titles of their Timurid ancestor Ulugh Beg.16 He also follows seventeenth-century terminology in referring to it as the Jewelled Throne, rather than the âPeacock Throneâ as later writers called it, derived from the two jewelled and enamelled birds perched on the canopy. It is unlikely that anyone in Awadh would have seen the throne in real life: as Gentilâs caption notes, it had been seized by Nadir Shah of Iran when he raided the Delhi treasury in 1739.17 After that devastating attack, painters were part of the mass exodus of individuals who left the city in search of new patrons, many of them moving to Awadh. Certain conventions in this paintingâthe carpet viewed from above, and the white steps drawn in true perspectiveâplace the artist within a continuous tradition linking Awadh to the Delhi court workshops earlier in the century.18
Figure 6.2
âChef des elephantsâ (Darogha fil khana) from a volume assembled by Gentil with illustrations by Nevasi Lal, Mohan Singh and other unidentified artists, annotated by Gentil in French and here by one of the artists in kaithi script, Awadh (Uttar Pradesh), Faizabad, 1774
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, IS.25:1-1980, detail
Figure 6.3
âBibliotecaireâ (Darogha ketabkhana) from a volume assembled by Gentil with illustrations by Nevasi Lal, Mohan Singh and other unidentified artists, annotated by Gentil in French and here by one of the artists in kaithi script, Awadh (Uttar Pradesh), Faizabad, 1774
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, IS.25:1-1980, detail
Figure 6.4
âFameux trosne de Chadjehan â¦â (Famous throne of Shah Jahan), from a volume assembled by Gentil with illustrations by Nevasi Lal, Mohan Singh, and other unidentified artists
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, IS.25:3-1980
The miniaturisation of figures that characterises Gentilâs album and the other illustrated volumes he commissioned, notably the atlas completed in 1770,19 may be seen in paintings done earlier in Delhi under Muhammad Shah (r. 1719â1748) or later in Awadh for Indian patrons. A courtly entertainment on a river terrace plausibly dated by Jeremiah Losty to around 1768 depicts princely figures smoking huqqas attended by servants as musicians and dancers perform (fig. 6.5).20 On the opposite bank of the river, a procession of elephants and rows of Bengal Army sepoys have the reduced scale and tight arrangement of figures done for Gentil.
Figure 6.5
Princes watching a nautch, Faizabad, c. 1760â1765
British Museum, London, 2000,1208,0.1
Figure 6.6
âSerail de Mahmetcha à la campagneâ (Muhammad Shahâs seraglio in the countryside), probably Delhi, c. 1740â1748, from a volume assembled by Gentil with illustrations by Nevasi Lal, Mohan Singh and other unidentified artists, Faizabad, 1774
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, IS.25:6-1980
One painting in the V&A volume with Gentilâs caption âpromenade des femmes du Serail de Mahommadchaâ stands out for its thick paper and traditional Indian painting technique in which opaque water colour is applied in layers and burnished to provide vivid, saturated tones (fig. 6.6).The women of the harem of Muhammad Shah are shown enjoying various pursuits in the countryside outside a palace. In the foreground, an imposing woman is depicted in a slightly larger scale, riding a white bullock: the numerical key identifies her as the emperorâs mother without naming her. Other women are depicted dancing and singing, some play with children or ride in boats on the river; one holds a matchlock gun as if about to set out to hunt. In the background, women are setting up the red screens (qanÄts) to conceal them from public view, with a woman smoking a ḥuqqa surrounded by emblems of royalty nearby: the text identifies her as Muhammad Shahâs wife. Stylistically, the painting appears to belong to his reign, considerably predating the rest of the illustrations in the volume.
The connection between Mohan Singh (active c. 1763â1782), one of the artists working for Gentil, and Muhammad Shahâs court has been noted in studies of the Receuil.21 His father Govardhan was in the imperial atelier in the 1730s.22 Could this bucolic scene be the work of the eighteenth-century Govardhan, which would explain its anachronistic presence here as well as its minimal relevance to the themes of the rest of the album? Or, given the close connections between Gentilâs wife and the Mughal royal family, could Teresa Velho have given it to her husband?
The drawings that follow may be interpreted as generic types of hunt inspired by the model of the Äʾīn-i AkbarÄ«, the third volume of the history commissioned by the Mughal emperor Akbar (r. 1556â1605) from the great historian Abuâl Fazl (1551â1602) in 1589. Gentil would have had the text very much in mind, having completed one partial translation of it in 1769 and another in 1773, the year before the V&A album was compiled.23 His illustrated atlas, Empire Mogol divisé en 21 soubas ou gouvernements tiré de differens ecrivains du païs a Faisabad en MDCCLXX, made four years earlier is heavily dependent on the Äʾīn-i AkbarÄ« and its survey of the ṣūbahs, or provinces.24 It is therefore highly likely that the Äʾīn-i AkbarÄ« was a âpoint of departureâ for the choice of some of the subjects depicted in Gentilâs volume.25 However, the seemingly generic types of hunt that are illustrated also match passages in his memoirs. Others depict specific events in which he took part.26
The first of these took place near Daulatabad in 1753, before Gentil moved to Awadh.27 The next was organised at Faizabad in honour of the Mughal emperor Shah Ê¿Alam II when he visited Awadh during a period of rapprochement in the complicated relationship between him and the nawab.28 The minute figure identified in the key as âle Sieur Gentilâ wears European garb and stands close to the emperor, immediately in front of the imperial emblems carried by servants.
Figure 6.7
âChasse du tigreâ (tiger hunt), from a volume assembled by Gentil with illustrations by Nevasi Lal, Mohan Singh and other unidentified artists, Faizabad, 1774
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, IS.25:10-1980
Two forms of the âchasses du nabobâ follow. In the depiction of the second hunt, Gentil and ShujaÊ¿ al-Dawla are depicted seated together in the howdah of the nawabâs elephant (fig. 6.7). The small scale of the figures makes it easy to miss the moment of high drama that is briefly noted in the accompanying text and in the Mémoires: the elephant bearing the English Captain Gabriel Harper who was stationed in Faizabad as the Companyâs representative is attacked by a tiger (transformed into a lion in the drawing) which is shot dead by the nawab.29 Illustrations of hunting expeditions made by the nawab in 1768 and 1769 follow, with annotations specifying that Gentil took part in these as well.30
The illustrated narrative then moves away from the stated intention to describe the manners and customs of the peoples of Hindustan. It mirrors the text of the Mémoires in returning to politics (ârevenons aux affaires politiquesâ) though slightly rearranges the chronological sequence.31 The drawings focus on Gentilâs political activities in Awadh in support of the nawab while simultaneously furthering French interests in India.
The decisive battle that would ultimately determine whether the British or French would ultimately win their struggle for ascendancy in the subcontinent had taken place at Plassey in 1757. The victory won by the East India Company forces under Robert Clive (1725â1774) and their destruction of the French city of Pondicherry in 1761 effectively ended French power in India. The British Company would go on to defeat the nawab of Awadh, beginning the inexorable process of English encroachment on his territories that he was ultimately unable to prevent. On 3 October 1764, after a prolonged period of conflict involving many shifting alliances, ShujaÊ¿âs army was decisively defeated by the English at Baksar (Buxar). ShujaÊ¿ was forced into temporary exile and sent Gentil as his emissary to negotiate with General John Carnac. The long text opposite the drawing of their encounter has a laudatory tone concerning Gentil and was probably written by his son. However, Gentilâs own account describes his pivotal role in settling the terms of what would become the Treaty of Buxar.32 He is depicted in the painting (no. 2) on an elephant dressed in Indian clothes in order, he explained in the Memoires, to be able to cross the country with greater ease.
Gentil describes his immediate rapport with the general on arriving at the English encampment and claims that he provided invaluable advice about how the Company could end the wars between the different Indian factions. The illustration of their encounter shows Gentil, now wearing European clothes, making a gesture implying he was giving advice to Carnac.33
Letters were soon exchanged between the general and the nawab who now gave Gentil a string of titles to enhance his importance: he became BahÄdur (the Valiant), NÄáºim-i Jang (Leader in War), TadbÄ«r al-Mulk (Counsel of Kings), RafÄ«Ê¿ al-Dawla (Uplifter of the State), the titles on his seal.34 ShujaÊ¿ was then persuaded to meet Carnac, and is depicted arriving at his encampment and embracing the East India Company officer in the same drawing. Gentil had urged the nawab to insist on the restitution of his lost territories: his Mémoires note âLa paix seule pouvait sauver cet ami des Français dâune perte inévitableâ (only peace could save this friend of the French from unavoidable losses)35 and the draft terms of the treaty were soon agreed between Carnac and ShujaÊ¿. The exiled nawab then returned to Allahabad to await the arrival of Robert Clive to whom Carnac gave precedence in ratifying and then signing the final treaty.
Days before the ratification, another significant agreement was made between the similarly exiled, but almost powerless emperor and the East India Company: on 12 August 1765, Shah Ê¿Alam II issued a farman which handed over to the Company the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. Only then, following several meetings between the emperor, Robert Clive and ShujaÊ¿ at Benares, were the terms of Carnacâs agreement accepted. The Treaty of Buxar was signed on 16 August 1765 with Carnacâs aide-de camp, Archibald Swinton, as witness. However, ShujaÊ¿âs former province of Allahabad was given by Clive to Shah Ê¿Alam II and would not be restored to the nawab until Warren Hastings (1732â1818) became the Companyâs governor. The signing of that new treaty in the presence of Gentil at Benares in September 1773 follows in the album.36
Figure 6.8
âLe Sieur Gentil est presenté à lâempereur par le nabob Vizirâ (The honourable Gentil is presented to the emperor by the nawab vizier), from a volume assembled by Gentil with illustrations by Nevasi Lal, Mohan Singh and other unidentified artists, Faizabad, 1774
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, IS.25:16-1980
The Treaty of Buxar allowed ShujaÊ¿ al-Dawla to return to Faizabad and Gentil accompanied him. By now, the amicable acquaintance between the two seems to have developed into a deeper friendship. As Gentil recounts in the Mémoires, he knew the nawabâs language well enough not to need an interpreter when they met, giving him one more opportunity to further his nationâs interests.37
Meanwhile, the collapse of French power in India meant large numbers of French soldiers were unemployed and in danger of starvation, leaving them no alternative but to join the East India Companyâs army. Thus, Gentil noted, they were contributing to the success of ânos ennemisâ.38 But the nawab had confided to Gentil his desire to have a force of 400 French soldiers, reflecting the general awareness of Indian rulers that superior European military discipline and technology were essential to allow them to resist the existential threat posed by the English.39 Gentil provided a neat solution to the nawabâs wishes: 200 French deserters from the Companyâs army were currently sheltering with the governor of Allahabad. Discreet negotiations took place and Gentil was soon able to present them to his new master, as illustrated.40
Figure 6.9
âRam outarâ (Ram avatar), from a volume assembled by Gentil with illustrations by Nevasi Lal, Mohan Singh and other unidentified artists, Faizabad, 1774
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, IS.25:56-1980
Shortly after this, the Mughal emperor paid a visit to Faizabad and asked to meet Gentil. His travelling throne paused outside Gentilâs house, the size of its gateway (gateway = no. 6) suggesting his dwelling was rather splendid.41 In the following illustration depicting their meeting, Gentilâs clothes are noticeably finer than in other scenes and the central part of the composition is highlighted with gold, emphasising the importance of the occasion (fig. 6.8).
The remaining illustrations return to the theme stated on the title page of the volume. The practices and beliefs of the Hindus and Muslims of India are described in multiple pages that include depictions of the jewellery and arms and armour of the region that again recall the Äʾīn-i AkbarÄ«.42 The series dealing with Hinduism is accompanied by extensive texts by Gentil explicitly recording his debt to Abuâl Fazl. However, even here contemporary local details are included.
On the page describing âRam outar [avatar]â the upper part of the composition includes episodes from the RÄmÄyaá¹a (fig. 6.9). The lower part reflects the real landscape of Ayodhya near Faizabad, regarded as the birthplace of Lord Rama. The numerical key identifies the English encampment and the fort on the south side of the river Ghaghara built âà la vaubanâ43 which follows the star-shaped form of the fortifications developed by Louis XIVâs famous military architect Sébastien le Prestre de Vauban (1633â1707). According to the accompanying text, construction of the fort was begun by Nawab ShujaÊ¿ al-Dawla but not finished.44 Not far away are a village, the English encampment, and two gardens owned respectively by a Muslim and the Hindu guardian of one of the sacred spaces.
Seven illustrations describe various aspects of Islamic religious practice, including some specific to the Shiʿi court of the Awadhi nawabs: the Muharram procession was one that had taken place in 1772 in Faizabad.45
2 The Polier Album I. 4599 in the Museum für Islamische Kunst
Less than three years after the Receuil had been completed, a very different volume was assembled for another French-speaking European in India whose time in Awadh briefly coincided with that of Gentil.
Antoine-Louis-Henri Polier (1741â1795) was born in Lausanne to French Protestant emigrés in 1741 and set off for India in 1757, intending to join his uncle in Madras. When the young man arrived, his uncle had died and without any other connections Polier joined the British East India Company. By the 1770s he had fought in significant military campaigns, reached the rank of major and been an engineer in Calcutta working on the construction of Fort William. Here, he met Warren Hastings, holder of the Companyâs highest office as governor-general of Bengal. Hastings would become one of Polierâs most important patrons in India; the two were friends, it seems that Polier was also his spy, and it was Hastings who appointed Polier as chief surveyor of Awadh in April 1773.46
Like Gentil, Polier was multilingual and moved easily between cultures, wearing Indian or European clothes depending on circumstances, and taking two Indian wives who bore him six children.47 He soon availed himself of the many opportunities open to Europeans in Awadh to earn large sums of money, but his affluent life in Faizabad was disturbed when he became caught up in hostilities between the British and French in India on the one hand, and conflicts between his patron Hastings and members of the ruling council in Calcutta on the other. Against the wishes of Hastings, the majority of the council decreed in 1775 that Polier should leave Awadh.48 He was reluctant to leave his lucrative business interests and a number of uncollected large debts owed to him, but Hastings was unable to help. Polier consequently resigned from his East India Company post and in 1776, the experienced military man entered the service of Shah Ê¿Alam II in Delhi.49 Coincidentally, he lived in the former residence of Gentilâs wifeâs ancestor Juliana, the mansion having been bought by Safdar Jang (r. 1739â1754) and inherited by the nawabs of Awadh.50 It was here that Berlin album I. 4599 was assembled.
The contents are significantly more complex than those of the two other volumes discussed here and deserve to be analysed by art historians and specialists in calligraphy able to examine all the folios in person. In the meantime, some general remarks may be made about the paintings and some of the highly decorated borders.
Like Polierâs other albums, it could be perused by a European who knew no Persian and who would therefore turn the pages as if it were a Western volume.51 The âfirstâ page according to the current Western foliation has a rectangular frame with characteristic floral margins enclosing a blank space bearing only the words âVolume Septiemeâ. The paintings that follow are numbered from 1 to 40, while the calligraphies are numbered in Persian ciphers and numerals in the upper left corners of the margins and could be ignored by a European audience. Readers familiar with Persian would automatically begin at the other end of the volume where the minuscule word avval, âfirstâ, is written at top left with the following folios numbered in correct sequence.
The title page bears a Persian inscription in five lines of nastaʿlīq on gold-flecked paper, set within a rectangular frame and floral margins matching those at the end of the volume (fig. 6.10). It reads:
This muraqqaÊ¿ of forty folios in nastaÊ¿lÄ«q, shikasta, thuluth and other scripts by the unique calligraphers of the age commissioned by His Eminence dispenser of favour [fayż-Äs̱Är], pride of the kingdom [iftikhÄr al-mulk], privilege of the state/good fortune [imtiyÄz al-dawla] Major PÅ«lÄ«r BahÄdur ArsalÄn Jang, may his success endureâcame to completion in the city of the Caliphate [DÄr al-KhilÄfat] ShÄhjahÄnabÄd [= Delhi] on the 29th of Rajab al-Murajjab of the hijrÄ« year 1190 [12 September 1776] corresponding to the year 18 from the blessed ascent to the throne of the PÄdishÄh ShÄh-i Ê¿Älam, the Fighter of the Faith [ghÄzÄ«] may God perpetuate his Kingship.52
The subjects of the paintings vary considerably and have little thematic connection. They include many stock subjects found in other albums compiled for Europeans in northern India at the time. None are signed; some have brief annotations identifying the person or scene depicted. The volume opens at the âEuropeanâ end with one of several different kinds of assemblies: a gathering of men in various stages of intoxication (majlis-i pÅ«stiyÄn: fol. 40r). Others in the album are simply described as an âassembly of womenâ (majlis-i zanÄn: fol. 12r) or depict women at the night-time shab-i barat (night of atonement) celebrations (fol. 37v).
Figure 6.10
Shamsa with Persian inscription identifying the volume as one compiled for Polier, Delhi, 1776
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst, I. 4599, fol. 40v
Eighteenth-century portraits of renowned historical figures include the ancestor of the Mughals, âAmir Teymurâ (fol. 14r), the emperors Akbar and Jahangir (fol. 19r), Ê¿Alamgir (fol. 33r), and Muhammad Shah. Polier collected similar Mughal portraits for other Europeans within his extensive network.53
Other famous figures of the past include Malik Ambar (1548â1626), de facto ruler of Ahmadnagar in the Deccan (fol. 31r), the high-ranking Mughal courtier Raja Man Singh (1550â1614) (fol. 24r), and an unconvincing likeness of Jahangirâs brother-in-law, Asaf Khan (c. 1569â1641) (fol. 29r).
Standard subjects of eighteenth-century Delhi or Awadhi painting include two scenes of a Bhil tribal couple engaged in hunting (shikÄr-i bhÄ«l) at night by torchlight derived from earlier Mughal models (fol. 34r and fol. 26r);54 a noble figure visiting holy men (fol. 23r); a prince with women at a well (fol. 9r) and emaciated animals (a camel, fol. 36r and horse, fol. 8r). Various studies of animals include a nilgai (fol. 30r) probably deriving ultimately from a work done by Mansur or another great master of the Mughal court during the reign of Jahangir.
Some of the best paintings have a direct connection with the contemporary courts of Delhi and Awadh. Burhan al-Mulk SaÊ¿adat Khan Bahadur (r. 1722â1739) (fig. 6.11) belonged to an Iranian family, was at one point in service to the Mughal emperor Farrukhsiyar and became the first nawab of Awadh in 1722.55 He died in 1739 during the cataclysmic invasion of Delhi by Nadir Shah (r. 1736â1747) of Iran. All the later nawabs were descended from him and his high status is apparent from his fine clothes, jewels and jade-hilted dagger, all in contemporary Indian fashion.
Figure 6.11
Burhan al-Mulk Saʿadat Khan Bahadur, from an album assembled for Polier, Delhi, 1776
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst, I. 4599, fol. 3r
In another portrait the emperor Ahmad Shah (r. 1748â1754) is shown offering a turban jewel to the richly dressed standing figure of Safdar Jang who succeeded SaÊ¿adat Khan as nawab of Awadh and was also the emperorâs vizier.56 Ahmad Shah was deposed by the Marathas, an act in which Safdar Jang was complicit, and remained a prisoner in Delhi until his death in 1775, the year before the album was compiled. Another figure of contemporary Awadhi relevance is Raja Nawal Rai, Safdar Jangâs influential munshÄ« (secretary) who was killed in battle in 1750 (fig. 6.12).57 He is shown adorned with opulent jewellery, sitting in a balcony beneath an arch anachronistically ornamented with the fish motifs that characterised nawabi architecture in Lucknow under Asaf al-Dawla.
Figure 6.12
Raja Nawal Rai, from an album assembled for Polier, Delhi, 1776
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst, I. 4599, fol. 6r
Letters sent from Delhi by Polier to his artist Mihr Chand in 1776 leave no doubt that his well-established passion for assembling albums continued in this new chapter of his life. His command that Mihr Chand join him, and bring with him two other unnamed artists, another individual identified only as naqqÄsh (painter), and calligraphic fragments and albums from Polierâs library, is repeatedly quoted,58 emphasising the current lack of information about the artists who worked for European patrons. This contrasts with the abundance of sources concerning calligraphers, as may be seen from Will Kwiatkowskiâs study in this volume. Examples of fine calligraphy in different styles by contemporary masters including some attached to the Mughal court could easily be acquired or commissioned in Delhi and Awadh by Polier (fol. 33v).
There is no consistency in the designs of the margins framing most of the paintings and calligraphies, but the similarity of the motifs in the narrower framing borders on indigo or pink grounds throughout the volume demonstrates that all the folios were prepared at the same time and give it a sense of unity despite the disparate contents.
The designs of the most ornate margins could have been used to provide models for the ornamentation of objects in a range of media, in line with traditional practice in court workshops. Several of these are versions of the highly distinctive margins of Polierâs albums assembled in Awadh, though done here with considerably more care. The motifs on a glass ḥuqqa base now in the Los Angeles County Museum are in a similar style and may conceivably have been done by Polierâs unnamed naqqÄsh (fig. 6.13 and fig. 6.14).
Figure 6.13
Calligraphy from an album assembled for Polier, Delhi, 1776
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst, I. 4599, fol. 7v
Figure 6.14
Ḥuqqa base, gilded glass, probably Lucknow, c. 1775â1800
Los Angeles County Museum, M.76.2.28
A few margins stand out for their considerably more sophisticated designs and are likely to have been painted by designers attached to the court in Delhi. Some of their motifs could have been replicated in enamel on gold: there is a close similarity for instance between the red blossoms and green foliage in the border of folio 37v (fig. 6.15) and those on a gold salver taken from the Delhi treasury by Nadir Shah which was sent from Iran to Russia as a diplomatic gift in 1741.59 Such designs could equally have been copied by artists decorating leather, as exemplified by the leather covering of the scabbard made for a sword now in the Royal Collection. The enamelled gold mounts on the hilt and scabbard are original and in the same style (fig. 6.16). Datable to about the same time the album was compiled, it was bought by George IV (r. 1820â1830) when Prince of Wales from âMr Jacksonâ on 15 October 1809 and may well have come from the court armoury in Delhi or Lucknow: the Royal Collection inventory note states that it belonged to âShere Af Khunâ (Sher Afghan), implying that it had been valued as a weapon with a significant provenance.60
Figure 6.15
Calligraphic page from an album assembled for Polier, Delhi, 1776
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst, I. 4599, fol. 37v
Figure 6.16
Sword and scabbard, probably Delhi, Faizabad or Lucknow, third quarter of the eighteenth century
Royal Collection Trust, RCINÂ 62880 a and b
Two portraits of unidentified Mughal nobles are surrounded by particularly fine margins (fig. 6.17 and fig. 6.18). The margins framing the first one are densely filled with repeating motifs of stylised flowers in vases connected to each other by very fine black scrolling lines bearing flowers and leaves, all precisely drawn and with touches of gold. Similar designs, minus the flower-filled vases, frame the other portrait and are seen filling much narrower margins on three more folios (fol. 7r; fol. 9r; fol. 37v). They could have inspired a master engraver working on silver or gold: such ornamentation is found on the hilt of a sword probably made in Lucknow in the late eighteenth-century (fig. 6.19) and on a dagger of similar date perhaps also made there or Delhi at the same time.61
Figure 6.17
Portrait of an unidentified Mughal nobleman, from an album assembled for Polier, Delhi, 1776
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst, I. 4599, fol. 10r
Figure 6.18
Portrait of an unidentified Mughal nobleman, from an album assembled for Polier, Delhi, 1776
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst, I. 4599, fol. 18r
3 The Polier Album in the Victoria and Albert Museum
Polier stayed in Delhi until 1780 and then returned to Awadh. By then, ShujaÊ¿ al-DawlaÊ¿âs son Asaf al-Dawla had moved the capital to Lucknow, where Polier now lived. An album bought in 1858 by the South Kensington Museum Library was commissioned by him in that city, though this was not known at the time of its acquisition. The slim volume of calligraphic specimens in Persian and Arabic was misleadingly described as:
Book. In manuscript. Persian. Consisting of twenty-nine pages, with ornamental borders of flowers. Written by Mohammad Alee, in the year of the Flight, 1195 (A.D.â¯1817 [sic]). In binding of leather, stamped and gilt. 14 in. by 10 ¾ in. Bought. 4765â1858.
There is no reference to the golden shamsa on the opening page that encloses a Persian inscription in nastaʿlīq:
Huwa Allahu AkbarĪn jÄrida bÄ«st u hasht varaqba khatt-i nastaÊ¿lÄ«q u thuluth u naskhwa-ghayruhu az khushnavÄ«sÄn-i rÅ«zigÄr
Figure 6.19
Sword hilt, Delhi, Faizabad or Lucknow, c. 1750â1770
Wallace Collection, London, OA1990
Him! God is Greatest. This album [contains] 28 leaves in nastaʿlīq, thuluth and naskh and other [styles] by the calligraphers of the age.
The illumination of the shamsa had been noticed by the influential commentator Owen Jones before the museum accessioned the volume; he included a detail of it in his seminal book of 1856, The Grammar of Ornament, as an example of âPersianâ design.62 However, the inscription was not reproduced and the volume remained in peaceful obscurity for the next 160 years until Victoria and Albert Museum curator Behnaz Atighi Moghaddam came across it during her survey of Iranian material in the National Art Library. Aware that it was not âPersianâ as listed, she supposed it to be Indian and showed it to me. The distinctive margins of the album bound in concertina form made it instantly obvious that it must have been made for Polier even though he is not named.63 A faint pencil note at the end of the album was the clue to discovering the history of the volume:
An illuminated specimen of Oriental calligraphy, written by Mohammad Alee in the year of the Hegira 1195
Purchased from the Library of the late Rt Honbl Warren Hastings at the Sale at Daylesford House in 1853
Warren Hastings had first travelled to India in 1750 to take a junior position within the East India Company. He moved back to England in 1765, returning to India four years later and eventually becoming the Companyâs first governor-general in Calcutta. Here he met Polier and as noted above, the two became firm friends. When Polier moved to Faizabad and then Delhi, they corresponded regularly.
In 1780, when Asaf al-Dawla needed an architect and engineer in Lucknow, Hastings gave permission for Polier to return to Awadh. Two years later he awarded Polier the rank of lieutenant colonel in the East India Company with an exemption from military service. Polier therefore had the time and considerable means to indulge his collecting passions.
His research interests put him in touch with William Jones (1746â1794) who had arrived in Calcutta in 1783. The lawyerâs whirlwind intellectual activities led him to found the Asiatick Society âfor the purpose of enquiring into the History, civil and natural, the Antiquities, Arts, Sciences and Literature of Asiaâ. Hastings and Polier were founding members and the Societyâs network soon expanded far beyond Calcutta, with distant members like Polier sending papers to be read at meetings. As Jonesâ interests widened to include the study of Sanskrit, he sought Polierâs help in obtaining rare manuscripts.64 Their friendship and shared scholarly interests led to the creation of the album of calligraphy at Daylesford, Hastingsâ country house, though Hastings was not the intended recipient.
In 1778, the English governor had demanded a war subsidy of 500,000 rupees from Raja Chait Singh (r. 1770â1781) of Benares on the basis that this was necessary payment for protection provided by East India Company troops. The Second Anglo-Mysore war against Haydar Ê¿Aliâs (r. 1761â1782) formidable army from 1780 to 1781 had overstretched the Companyâs resources and when Chait Singh fell behind with his payments, Hastings aggressively chased the supposed debt, going personally to Benares to arrest him. Simmering resentment against the Companyâs increasing control and excessive financial demands now erupted into open rebellion. Riots broke out and Hastingsâ life was briefly in danger. The uprising was supported by Bahu Begum (d. 1816), Asaf al-Dawlaâs mother, who had enormous wealth derived from her control of the state treasury after the death of her husband ShujaÊ¿ al-Dawla. This was naturally resented by her son when he became nawab and a power struggle broke out. Asaf called on Warren Hastings to help, and with the support of the Companyâs army was able to seize lands owned by the Begum and her daughter. This would be dubbed the ârobbery of the Oudh begumsâ in the later trial of Hastings on his return to England.
Ultimately, in order to tighten the Companyâs grip on the region, Hastings installed a new Company resident in Lucknow and forced Asaf to relinquish his official seal. When the nawab retaliated by effectively abdicating, meaning the administration could no longer function, Hastings had to recall his resident but decided to go to Lucknow to restore relations with Asaf and ensure that the Companyâs interests in the province were maintained. His presence in Lucknow therefore derived not from disinterested scholarly curiosity but from the infinitely less civilised world of East India Company power politics.
As Hastings neared Lucknow in March 1784, the nawab honoured him by riding out to meet him at some distance from the city. Mir Muhammad Taqi, one of the great Delhi poets to have settled in Lucknow and whose pen name was Mir, later described in his áºikr-i MÄ«r (Account of Mir) the splendid reception given by the nawab to Hastings.65 The English governor stayed until the end of August, residing at first in a house of Claude Martin before moving in May to âBowlee ke Mohanaâ, identified by Rosie Llewellyn-Jones as the Baâoli Palace next to the Great Imambara.66 Hastingsâ diary mentions his many social encounters with the nawab and other members of his family, and his frequent attendance at gatherings held in the houses of Martin and other Europeans in the city. He witnessed at least one of Colonel Mordauntâs famous cock fights and accompanied the visiting artist Johan Zoffany (1733â1810) when he painted portraits of leading members of the Awadhi court. He also spent a considerable amount of time with Polier, providing occasional intriguing glimpses of the household, such as the occasion when he saw artist Mihr Chand finishing a seal âwith his machineryâ.67
Hastings finally left for Calcutta on the evening of the 27th August after spending the day with his friend. A letter written to him by Polier on 15Â July 1786 states:
While you was last at Lacknow, I took the liberty of troubling you with a Moracka of fine Oriental writings for Sir Wm Jonesâin the hurry occasioned by your departure you forgot to send it, and he on his side omitted to remind you. I have since replaced this book with another I have given to sir Wm and I have now to request youâll accept of the one you have by you, as a small token of my gratitude & regard.68
The album contains a range of calligraphic models for individual letters of the alphabet or combinations of letters, as well as religious texts, poetic quotations and extracts of prose narratives.69 One calligraphy is signed by Dirayat Khan, a calligrapher of the late seventeenth century who belonged to a family of Iranian descent and whose father had been in the service of Shah Jahan.70 Seven calligraphies are signed by Muhammad Ê¿Ali, a master closely connected to the court of Awadh.71 Four are dated between 1195 (28 December 1780â16 December 1781) and 1198 (26 November 1783â13 November 1784), and the final one, on folio 29 (fig. 6.20) includes a mildly ironic verse in nastaÊ¿lÄ«q that implies the calligrapher compiled the album, as suggested by A.S. Melikian-Chirvani.72 It reads: BÄ tu hamá¹£uḥbatÄ« az bÅ«âl-Ê¿ajabÄ«hÄ-yi manast. BÅ«âl-Ê¿ajabÄ« is used here pejoratively with the meaning âtrickâ, âsleight of handâ and can be understood to mean âKeeping company with you/friendliness with you is one of my tricksterâs accomplishmentsâ, and to be addressed by the calligrapher to Polier as the person who commissioned the album. It follows that the scribe who wrote the verses, and who contributed so many examples of his work to the album, was the compiler. The latest dated calligraphy, 1198 (26 November 1783â12 November 1784), suggests that it was compiled during Hastingsâ sojourn in Lucknow and that the English governor must have met Muhammad Ê¿Ali. The album was assembled quickly and was easily replaced: by July 1786 Polier had already commissioned another for Jones. That volume has now been discovered by Jake Benson in the John Rylands Library and is discussed in his contribution to the present volume.
Figure 6.20
Calligraphy by Muhammad ʿAli, from an album assembled for Polier, Lucknow, c. 1784
Victoria and Albert Museum, National Art Library, 4765â1858, fol. 29 [no. 28]
4 Conclusion
The Gentil album of 1774 was created by a French patron working closely with artists who were formally in service to the nawab but permitted to work for a man who was clearly his friend. Nevasi Lal, Mohan Singh and one or more others bring their distinctive character to the drawings, rendering in miniature scale features of Awadhi painting seen as early as the 1760s and deriving from Delhi conventions. They are predominantly tinted with delicately toned water colour washes, and the album is wholly in European style. It seems to have been made as the visual complement to Gentilâs memoirs, both intended for an audience in France. The purpose of the Receuil was to explain to scholars in France the religions and cultures of the people among whom Gentil had lived, while highlighting his own political importance and the role he played in defending French interests in the subcontinent.
Polierâs album of 1190 (1776) was compiled in Delhi where the traditions of the royal kitÄbkhÄna or âhouse of booksâ seem to have persisted despite the devastation of Nadir Shahâs raid of the city in the years 1738 to 1739. In Delhi, Polier the avid collector would have had ample opportunity to acquire paintings and calligraphies of earlier and recent periods, either through his court connections or from other collectors, to add to his own commissions of both. The very high quality of some of the margins of paintings that are datable to within a few years of Polierâs residence implies that his closeness to Shah Ê¿Alam II permitted some interaction with his kitÄbkhÄna. The traditional role of the painter/designer supplying designs for use in other media clearly continued in Delhi and by extension in Awadh.
Polierâs album of 1784 was compiled for the specific purpose of providing his learned friend William Jones with examples of calligraphy in Persian and Arabic, though chance circumstances meant that it was kept by Warren Hastings. Internal evidence suggests it was assembled by Muhammad Ê¿Ali who included dated examples of his own calligraphy. It therefore belongs to the long muraqqaÊ¿ tradition in Hindustan that was inspired by Iran and Central Asia, but the late eighteenth-century world of literati in northern India now included foreigners like those who established the Asiatic Society in Calcutta.
The three albums together demonstrate the complexity of cultural exchanges between the Mughal elite in Delhi and Awadh, and European scholars.
Acknowledgements
I am extremely grateful to Friederike Weis for her helpful comments and revisions, to Assadullah Souren Melikian-Chirvani for his translations of key Persian sources, to Francesca Orsini and Revati Mann for their help in identifying the kaithi inscriptions and especially to Komal Pande for translating some of them, and to Rosie Llewellyn-Jones for scrutinising this essay.
âAlbum of all kinds of drawings concerning the habits and customs of the peoples of Hindustan or Mughal Empire, after several Indian painters, Nevasi Lal, Mohan Singh etc in the service of the Nawab Wazir ShujaÊ¿ al-Dawla, Governor-General of the provinces of Allahabad and Awadh. The said album has been made through the efforts of the Sieur Gentil, Colonel of Infantry, in 1774 in Faizabadâ; translation by the author. The album, IS.25-1980, was bought for £â¯11,000 in 1980 from Robert G. Sawers, Rare Books and Oriental Art, London. He brought it from Paris on approval without disclosing where he acquired it (V&A archives: Registered File number 79/1630). The covers of the volume measure 38.2â¯Ãâ¯55.5â¯cm; it contains one painting on Indian paper and 57 drawings on European paper (watermarks are visible on the last few sheets in the album where the paper is not covered by texts tipped in later). All the drawings are on the right side of each opening with explanatory text opposite.
The album is no. 9. I in the âListe Gentilâ. See Roselyne Hurel, Miniatures et peintures indiennes: collection du département des Estampes et de la photographie de la Bibliothèque nationale de France (Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France, 2010), vol. 1, p. 245. The author reproduces (pp. 243â246) the complete list held in the print department of the Bibliothèque nationale (Estampes, Réserve Ye 62 4°). A brief notice of the volume was written soon after its acquisition (Andrew Topsfield, âTwo early Company albumsâ, in The V&A Album 2 [London: V&A publications, 1983], pp. 57â62); Mildred Archer provided a short introduction to Gentilâs Indian career, brief mention of some of the illustrated manuscripts he commissioned and whereabouts of some not in French collections, as well as a summary list in English of the subject of each drawing (Mildred Archer and Graham Parlett, Company Paintings: Indian Paintings of the British Period [London: Victoria and Albert Museum in association with Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd., 1992], cat.no. 89, pp. 117â122). See also Susan Gole, Maps of Mughal India (New Delhi: Manohar, 1988), pp. 4â5. Chanchal Dadlani, âTransporting India: The Gentil Album and Mughal Manuscript Cultureâ, Art History 38 (2015), pp. 749â761 points out the correspondences with Abuâl Fazlâs Äʾīn-i AkbarÄ« (Institutes of Akbar) that go beyond those mentioned in Gentilâs annotations. For a discussion of the depictions of Shah Ê¿Alam II in the album, see Yuthika Sharma, âFrom Miniatures to Monuments: Picturing Shah Alamâs Delhiâ, first published in Indo-Muslim Cultures in Transition, ed. Alka Patel and Karen Leonard (Leiden: Brill, 2012), pp. 120â125.
[Jean-Baptiste-Joseph] Gentil, Mémoires sur lâindoustan ou Empire Mogol (Paris: Petit, Palais-Royal, Galeries de Bois, no. 257, 1822). A succinct outline of Gentilâs life in English is provided by Gole, Maps of Mughal India, pp. 3â4 and Archer, Company Painting, pp. 117â118. Additional details are provided by Hurel, Miniatures et peintures indiennes, pp. 32â38. For his collecting, see Francis Richard, âJean-Baptiste Gentil, collectionneur de manuscrits persansâ, Dix-huitième siècle: LâOrient 28 (1996), pp. 91â110.
The lives of Nevasi Lal (active c. 1760â1775) and Mohan Singh (active c. 1763â1782) remain tantalisingly obscure and few paintings that can be firmly attributed to them are known. See Rosie Llewellyn-Jones, âPainting in Lucknow 1775â1800â, in William Dalrymple et al, Forgotten Masters. Indian Painting for the East India Company (London: Philip Wilson Publishers, 2020), pp. 26â33, p. 28 for mention of their âlarge fold-out panoramas of prominent buildings in Delhi, Agra and Faizabadâ done for Gentil; similarly brief mention is made of them in Chanchal B. Dadlani, From Stone to Paper: Architecture as History in the Late Mughal Empire (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2018), p. 130. Nevasi Lal copied at least one painting by the English artist Tilly Kettle in Faizabad, but most published works are simply attributed to him for reasons that are not always clear: e.g. a painting of court ladies playing chess (Musée Guimet, Paris, MA12112.)
For his collection see Richard, âJean-Baptiste Gentilâ; Jean-Marie Lafont, Indika: Essays in Indo-French Relations, 1630â1976 (New Delhi: Manohar and Centre des Sciences Humaines, 2002), pp. 98â99; and Hurel, Miniatures et peintures indiennes, pp. 24 and 32â38. Hurel draws attention to the ulterior motives behind the donation (p. 38) and describes the dispersal of his collection, including coins and arms and armour, pp. 33â36. S.P. Sen credits the beginning of Indological studies in France to Gentilâs donations to French institutions (S.P. Sen, The French in India 1763â1816 [Calcutta: Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyay, 1958] quoted by Lafont, Indika, p. 138).
Jean-Marie Lafont, Indika, p. 102. This was echoed more recently by Dhir Sarangi, Jawaharlal Nehru University Delhi: âPeintures indiennes et transferts culturelsâ, Synergies Inde 7 (2016), pp. 57â68; see pp. 61 and 62 in particular. Gentilâs son who published his fatherâs memoirs posthumously was probably responsible for the additional text in the V&A volume, some of which is copied verbatim from the Mémoires.
Richard, âJean-Baptiste Gentilâ, p. 96. Similarly, the series of architectural drawings commissioned by Gentil (Palais indiens) was intended for a French audience: see Dadlani, From Stone to Paper, pp. 145â147.
Gentil, Mémoires, pp. 286â290.
Hurel, Miniatures et peintures indiennes, p. 33.
Gentil, Mémoires, âJulianaâ, pp. 367â380. Julianaâs high position is indicated by the fact that Shah Ê¿Alam I gave her the mid-seventeenth-century palace of Dara Shikoh (1615â1659), the favourite son of Shah Jahan (r. 1628â1658), to live in. She died in 1732 and was buried in the Christian cemetery in Agra.
For the explanatory key opposite the first drawing (fig. 1), see
My colleague Revati Mann tentatively identified the script and Francesca Orsini confirmed it. Komal Pande of the National Museum of India read a small selection of the inscriptions, confirming that they follow the French designations. I am grateful to them all, and to Adriana Concin for taking these micro photographs. Kaithi was used across northern India, and particularly in Awadh and Bihar, from at least the eighteenth century to the early twentieth, to write legal records, administrative accounts, etc. The name is derived from the Sanskrit kÄyastha, the name of the scribal caste of North India. See the commentary by Anshuman Pandey Proposal to Encode the Kaithi Script in Plane 1 of ISO/IEC 10646, October 25, 2005, p. 4 (
IS.25:2-1980 (
For details of the life and career under Jahangir and Shah Jahan see A.S. Melikian-Chirvani, âSaÊ¿Ä«dÄ-ye GÄ«lÄnÄ« and the Iranian Style Jades of Hindustanâ, Bulletin of the Asia Institute 13 (1999), pp. 83â140.
Gentil, Mémoires, p. 191. The spinel was first published in Manuel Keene and Salam Kaoukji, Treasury of the World. Jewelled Arts of India in the Age of the Mughals (London: Thames & Hudson, 2001), cat.no. 12.1, p. 135. The inscriptions are fully translated and discussed in Melikian-Chirvani, âSaÊ¿Ä«dÄ-ye GÄ«lÄnÄ«â, pp. 86â88.
âIl fut enlevé par Nadercha in 1151 de lâhegire (1738â1739 de j.c)â.
For similar renditions of carpets, see Barbara Schmitz (ed.), After the Great Mughals: Painting in Delhi and the Regional Courts in the 18th and 19th Centuries, Marg Publications, vol. 53/4 (Mumbai: Marg, 2002), fig. 9, p. 24 (Muhammad Shah with four courtiers, attributed to Chitarman, Delhi c. 1730). The precise convention used to depict the white steps is seen on a work ascribed to Nidha Mal dated to c. 1735 (ibid., fig. 10, p. 25, Muhammad Shah with courtiers, San Diego Museum of Art, Edwin Binney 3rd Collection, 1990.378).
British Library, London, Add Or 4039. All the maps are reproduced in Gole, Maps of Mughal India. Several details illustrated in the maps are repeated in the Receuil, as noted by Gole and other later authors, e.g. Sharma, âFrom Miniatures to Monumentsâ, pp. 122â124.
J.P. Losty, âPainting at Lucknow 1775â1850â, in Lucknow Then and Now, Marg Publications, vol. 55/1, ed. Rosie Llewellyn-Jones (Mumbai: Marg, 2003), fig. 1, pp. 118â133, here p. 119 (British Museum, London, 2000,1208,0.1.).
Sharma, âMiniatures to Monumentsâ, p. 124 and Dadlani, âThe Gentil Albumâ, p. 750.
For brief details of Govardhan (often styled âGovardhan IIâ by art historians in order to avoid confusion with the seventeenth century court artist of the same name), see Terence McInerney in Schmitz (ed.), After the Great Mughals, pp. 19â20, who states that he âspecialized in the so-called âharemâ genre, which depicted life in the imperial zenana when the emperor was not present.â The artistâs most significant known work is preserved in the KÄrnÄma-i Ê¿Ishq (The Book of Affairs of Love) composed by Rai Anand Ram, whose pen name was Mukhlis, and copied in 1148 (1735). See Jeremiah P. Losty, The Art of the Book in India (London: British Library, 1982), cat.no. 106, pp. 133â134, who identified it as the presentation copy made by the author to Muhammad Shah (r. 1719â1748). The paintings by Govardhan were completed in 1151 (1738/39), therefore precisely at the time of Nadir Shahâs devastating invasion. For a recent study of the manuscript, see Malini Royâs 2013 blog (
Chanchal Dadlani draws attention to Gentilâs partial translation of the Persian text now preserved in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris (Fr. 12217), and to his own copy of the manuscript that would become part of the French Royal Library (Dadlani, âThe Gentil Albumâ, p. 752 and notes 11 and 12).
Gole, Maps of Mughal India, p. 5. See also Archer and Parlett, Company Paintings, pp. 41â45.
Dadlani, âThe Gentil Albumâ, p. 751.
Gentil, Mémoires, pp. 265â271. Here he surveys the kinds of animals including rhinoceros, elephants, tigers etc. that are hunted, all of which are illustrated, and mentions the hunt given for Shah Ê¿Alam.
IS.25:7-1980, titled âchasse du nabob Salabet Djangue près dâaurengabadâ, see
IS.25:8-1980,
Gentil, Mémoires, p. 268. A silver seal made for Harper as a Colonel, inscribed with his Persian titles and dated 1199/1784â1785, is in the British Museum, London (1996,0325.1).
IS.25:12-1980 and IS.25:13-1980,
Gentil, Mémoires, p. 271.
IS.25:17-1980,
IS.25:19â1980,
Gentil, Mémoires, p. 244; Dadlani, From Stone to Paper, p. 135.
Gentil, Mémoires, p. 246.
IS.25:20-1980,
Gentil, Mémoires, pp. 236, 262â263.
Ibid., p. 263.
See Barnett, North India Between Empires, p. 76.
IS.25:13-1980,
IS.25:15-1980,
IS.25:34-1980,
For ShujaÊ¿ al-Dawlaâs interest in Vauban-type fortresses (such as the one built for him in Faizabad), see also Banmali Tandan, The Architecture of Lucknow and Oudh: Its Evolution in an Aesthetic and Social Context (Cambridge: Zophorus, 2008), pp. 90â91.
IS.25:30-1980,
See Seema Alavi, âPolier, Antoine Louis Henriâ in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,
Alavi, âPolierâ, also mentions two other âwomen of Polierâ who were left pensions by Polierâs friend Claude Martin in his will.
See Subrahmanyam, âThe Career of Colonel Polierâ, pp. 51â52 quoting from Polierâs statement to the Bengal council of February 1775.
Antoine Louis Henri Polier, Shah Alam II and his Court: A Narrative of the Transactions at the Court of Delhy from the Year 1771 to the Present Time, ed. Pratul C. Gupta (Calcutta: S.C. Sarkar and Sons Ltd, 1947).
Jean-Marie Lafont, Chitra: Cities and Monuments of Eighteenth-century India from French Archives (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 103, drawing on the Mémoires.
A characteristic of some of Polierâs albums first noted by Friederike Weis, âVon zwei Seiten betrachtbar: Indische Alben für Antoine-Louis Polierâ, in OrdnenâVergleichenâErzählen: Materialität, kennerschaftliche Praxis und Wissensvermittlung in Klebebänden des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, ed. Elisabeth Oy-Marra and Annkatrin Kaul-Trivolis (Merzhausen: ad picturam, 2024), pp. 125â153.
I am extremely grateful to A.S. Melikian-Chirvani for his translation.
Llewellyn-Jones, A Very Ingenious Man, p. 93.
See Adeela Qureshi de Unger, The Hunt as Metaphor in Mughal Painting (1556â1707) (Zurich: Artibus Asiae Publishers, Supplement 56, 2022), pp. 137â170 and especially figs. 109â113.
For the family of Burhan al-Mulk, see IS.25:21-1980,
Reproduced in Almut von GladiÃ, Albumblätter: Miniaturen aus den Sammlungen indo-islamischer Herrscherhöfe (Berlin: Edition Minerva, 2010), fig. 58, p. 96.
For a biographical note on Raja Nawal Rai, see Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam, âWitnesses and Agents of Empire: Eighteenth-Century Historiography and the World of the Mughal MunshÄ«â, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 53/ 1â2 (2010), pp. 393â423 (see pp. 396â397).
Muzaffar Alam and Seema Alavi (eds.), A European Experience of the Mughal Orient. The IÊ¿jaz-i Arsalani (Persian Letters, 1773â1779) of Antoine-Louis Henri Polier, (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 23â25.
A. Ivanov, V.G. Lukonin and L. Smesova, Oriental Jewellery from the Collection of the Special Treasury, the State Hermitage Oriental Department (Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1984), cat. [102] 166, p. 37 with full page colour illustration (unpaginated).
I am extremely grateful to Francesca Levey, Arms and Armour Conservator at the Royal Collection Trust, for drawing my attention to this sword and supplying the provenance information.
Wallace Collection, London, OA1986: dagger, the hilt covered with silver and with black enamel, the scabbard decorated en suite.
Owen Jones, The Grammar of Ornament (London: Day and Son, 1856), âPersian No. 5, pl. XLVIIIâ, caption 75: âPlate XLVIII. From a Persian MS. South Kensington Museumâ. This connection was first made by Moya Carey, to whom I am grateful for drawing it to my attention. For her discussion of Jonesâ engagement with âPersianâ and âIndianâ ornament, see Moya Carey, Persian Art: Collecting the Arts of Iran in the 19th Century (London: V&A Publishing, 2017), p. 34.
For the full history of the album and an introduction to the calligraphic specimens with summary descriptions, see Susan Stronge and Behnaz Atighi Moghaddam, âAn Unrecorded Polier MuraqqaÊ¿ (c. 1785): New Insights into British-Hindustani Cultural Interactionâ, in Adle NÄmeh: Studies in Memory of Chahriyar Adle, ed. Alireza Anisi (Tehran: Research Institute for Cultural Heritage and Tourism, 2018), pp. 195â228. The article is summarised here.
Letter to Polier from William Jones in Calcutta, dated 9 January 1787: see G. Channon, The Letters of William Jones (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970), vol. 2, pp. 731â732.
As mentioned by Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam in âOf Princes and Poets in Eighteenth-Century Lucknowâ, in Indiaâs Fabled City: The Art of Courtly Lucknow, ed. Stephen Markel and Tushara Bindu Gude (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2010), pp. 187â197, here p. 188.
Personal communication of 6 December 2022. See British Library, Add MS 39879: Warren Hastings papers, supplement vol. 9, Diary A, p. 24b; see p. 18 for his earlier residence in a house of Claude Martin.
âMohrcund w his Machinery fin.d a Seal before meâ, Warren Hastings papers ⦠Diary A, p. 32, âLucnow [sic]. July 1784â.
British Library, Add MS 29170, fol. 129.
For a summary of the contents see Atighi Moghaddam in Stronge and Atighi Moghaddam, âAn Unrecorded Polier MuraqqaÊ¿â, pp. 204â214. Not all the prose texts have been identified.
Ibid., p. 207.
As noted by Atighi Moghaddam, ibid., pp. 206â207. Other verses written by Muhammad Ê¿Ali and dated 1195 (28 December 1780â16 December 1781) are preserved in an album of paintings and calligraphies presented by Polier to Lady Coote, the wife of friend Sir Eyre Coote (of which seventeen pages are preserved in the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, 1982.2.70.1-16 and 1983.2.12) and in the recently discovered calligraphy album (John Rylands Research Institute and Library, Manchester, Persian MS 10) presented by Polier to Jones as a substitute of the V&A album MSL/1858/4765 given to Hastings. For a thorough description of Persian MS 10 and a comparison of its contents with the V&A album, see Jake Bensonâs article in the present volume.
Calligraphies signed and dated by him and with Polier-style margins also appear from time to time on the art market: see for example, Pundolesâ online catalogue of 2011, lot 131, âTwo Calligraphic Panels, from an album associated with Antoine Polier, Delhi or Lucknow, India, dated 1197/1783â¯ADâ (
Stronge and Atighi Moghaddam, âAn Unrecorded Polier MuraqqaÊ¿â, p. 214.