Q17 · UPSC Prelims 2019 · Set A · History (Ancient, Medieval, Modern)

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Who among the following Mughal Emperors shifted emphasis from illustrated manuscripts to album and individual portrait?

A Humayun
B Akbar
C Jahangir
D Shah Jahan

Correct answer: (c) Jahangir

Explanation

  1. A

    Humayun

    (a) Humayun. He brought Persian painters (Mir Sayyid Ali, Abd al-Samad) and began an atelier, but the great illustrated-manuscript age is Akbar’s, and the album-portrait shift is later. Humayun is not the key.

  2. B

    Akbar

    (b) Akbar. Akbar’s studio produced large illustrated manuscripts (Hamzanama, Akbarnama). He did not shift the centre of gravity from manuscripts to individual album portraits; that is not the key.

  3. C

    Jahangir

    (c) Jahangir. Jahangir’s atelier specialised in muraqqa albums, psychological individual portraits, natural-history studies and border illumination, moving away from Akbar’s big narrative manuscripts. That shift is the official key.

  4. D

    Shah Jahan

    (d) Shah Jahan. He continued portraiture and refined jewel-like painting, but the historiographical shift from manuscript to album is credited to Jahangir, so Shah Jahan is not the key.

Summary. Official key is (c) Jahangir. Akbar’s painting is manuscript illustration at scale. Jahangir preferred the album page, the individual likeness, birds and flowers. Humayun founded the Persianate workshop; Shah Jahan inherited the portrait idiom. Honour the stored letter (c).

Same topic · past papers

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