Subject: ahadi 'single' heavy cavalryman

Culture: Mughal-Rajput

Setting: Great Mughal empire, Hindustan/Deccan late 16th-early 18thc

* Brooklyn Museum > South and South-East Asia

"Hardas, Son of Anup Chatar

(Indian, active 17th century) Portrait of a Man

India, Aurangzeb period, late 17th century

Color wash on paper ...

Reclining against a large pillow, a bearded man with a turban holds a huqqa pipe in his right hand and a flower in his left. On the cushion next to him are a dagger and more flowers. The sitter's name is not provided, but inscriptions on the reverse indicate that he had previously been a trustworthy imperial soldier, that he might have been born in the Deccan region of central India, and that he was an official of the court of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in charge of music and other performing arts. The profile in this portrait was probably used by court artists as a template to add the sitter to scenes commemorating royal events."