Padshahnama or ''Badshah Nama'' (; ) is a group of works written as the official history of the reign of the

Mughal Emperor The emperors of the Mughal Empire, who were all members of the Timurid dynasty (House of Babur), ruled the empire from its inception on 21 April 1526 to its dissolution on 21 September 1857. They were supreme monarchs of the Mughal Empire in ...

Shah Jahan I. Unillustrated texts are known as ''

Shahjahannama The ''Shahjahannama'' (; ) is a genre of works written about the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. ''Padshahnama'' is a term for lavishly illuminated versions. A significant work in this genre was written by the historian Inayat Khan (historian), Inay ...

'', with ''Padshahnama'' used for the illustrated manuscript versions. These works are among the major sources of information about Shah Jahan's reign. Lavishly illustrated copies were produced in the imperial workshops, with many

Mughal miniature Mughal painting is a South Asian style of painting on paper made in to miniature (illuminated manuscript), miniatures either as book illustrations or as single works to be kept in albums (muraqqa), originating from the territory of the Mughal Emp ...

s. Although military campaigns are given the most prominence, the illustrations and paintings in the manuscripts of these works illuminate life in the imperial court, depicting weddings and other activities. Shah Jahan op de pauwentroon

The most significant work of this genre was written by

Abdul Hamid Lahori ʿAbd-al-Ḥamīd Lāhūrī (; died 14 May 1654) was a 17th-century traveller and historian during the reign of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahān who later became a court historian for the emperor. He wrote the '' Pādshāh-nāma'', the official chro ...

, the pupil of Akbar's biographer Abdul Fazal, in two volumes. He could not write the third volume of this genre because of the infirmities of old age. Majumdar, R. C. (ed.) (2007). ''The Mughul Empire'', Mumbai: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, , p.9

History

Shah Jahan in his eighth regnal year asked Muhammad Amin Qazvini to write an official history of his reign and he completed his ''Badshahnama'' in 1636, which covers the first ten (lunar) years of Shah Jahan’s reign. Jalaluddin Tabatabai wrote another ''Badshahnama'', but the extant portion of the text covers only four years, from fifth to eighth regnal year of the emperor. The project was later given to

, who wrote his ''Badshahnama'' in two volumes. The first volume of this work is based upon Qazvini’s work but has more details. The second volume covers the next ten (lunar) years of Shah Jahan’s reign. He completed his work in 1648. Lahori died in 1654. Muhammad Waris, a pupil of Lahori was given the responsibility to complete the task and his ''Badshahnama'' (completed in 1656) covers the rest of the period of Shah Jahan’s reign. His work was published by the

Asiatic Society The Asiatic Society is an organisation founded during the Company rule in India to enhance and further the cause of " Oriental research" (in this case, research into India and the surrounding regions). It was founded by the philologist Will ...

as the third volume of the ''Badshahnama'' of Lahori.

Extant manuscripts

In 1799,

Saadat Ali Khan II Yameen-ud Daula Saadat Ali Khan II Bahadur (bf. 1752 – c. 11 July 1814) was the sixth Nawab of Oudh from 21 January 1798 to 11 July 1814, and the son of Shuja-ud-Daula. He was of Persian origin. Life He was the second son of Nawab Shu ...

, the

Nawab of Awadh The Nawab of Awadh or Nawab of Oudh was the title of the rulers of Kingdom of Awadh (anglicised as Oudh) in northern India during the 18th and 19th centuries. The Nawabs of Awadh belonged to an Iranian dynasty''Encyclopædia Iranica'', R. B. B ...

in northern

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, sent the ''Badshahnama'', to King

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...

of Great Britain. Today, the imperial illustrated manuscript of the ''Badshahnama'' of Lahori is preserved in the Royal Library at

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a List of British royal residences, royal residence at Windsor, Berkshire, Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, about west of central London. It is strongly associated with the Kingdom of England, English and succee ...

, and is known as the Windsor Padshahnama. It was produced between 1630 and 1657 and contains 44 miniatures, some full page narrative scenes of battles, court ceremonies and other events (11 are across two pages), and some smaller individual portraits, surrounded by geometric decoration. These illustrate the

genealogy Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...

of the

Mughal dynasty The Mughal dynasty () or the House of Babur (), was a Central Asian dynasty of Turco-Mongol tradition, Turco-Mongol origin that ruled large parts of the Indian subcontinent from the early 16th to the 19th century. The dynasty was a cadet branch ...

which begins the work. The page size is 58.6 x 36.8 cm, and 13 different lead artists worked on the volume. In 1994, while the volume was being rebound for conservation reasons, the opportunity was taken to tour all the miniatures in an exhibition that was shown in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

, the

Queen's Gallery The King's Gallery, previously known as the Queen's Gallery, is a public art gallery at Buckingham Palace, the official residence of the British monarch, in London. First opened to the public in the reign of Elizabeth II in 1962, it exhibits ...

in London, and six American cities. Manuscripts of the ''Badshahnama''s of Qazvini and Waris are preserved in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

. The original manuscript of the ''Badshah Nama'' that depicts the complete reign of Shah Jahan is preserved in

Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library is one of the national libraries of India, located in Patna, Bihar. It was opened to public on 29 October 1891 by Khan Bahadur Khuda Bakhsh with 4,000 manuscripts, of which he inherited 1,400 from his father Maulvi ...

Patna Patna (; , ISO 15919, ISO: ''Paṭanā''), historically known as Pataliputra, Pāṭaliputra, is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, ...

, India. Other individual miniatures are held in a number collections. The

Khalili Collection of Islamic Art The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art includes 26,000 objects documenting Islamic art over a period of almost 1400 years, from 700 AD to the end of the twentieth century. It is the largest of the Khalili Collections: eight collections ...

has one miniature in which Shah Jahan and his court watch two elephants fighting. There were some later illustrated manuscript copies made; for example the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

in New York has miniatures from 17th-century versions, and the

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 1961 ...

from one of around 1800.

Context

The ''Padshahnama'' fits into a tradition of imperial autobiographies or official court biographies, seen in various parts of the world. In

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

these go back to the ''

Ashokavadana The Ashokavadana (; ; "Narrative of Ashoka") is an Indian Sanskrit-language text that describes the birth and reign of the third Mauryan Emperor Ashoka. It glorifies Ashoka as a Buddhist emperor whose only ambition was to spread Buddhism far an ...

'' and ''

Harshacharita The ''Harshacharita'' (, ; English: ''The deeds of Harsha'') is the biography of Indian emperor Harsha by Banabhatta, also known as Bana, who was a Sanskrit writer of seventh-century CE India. He was the ''Asthana Kavi'', meaning ''Court Poet ...

'' from

ancient India Anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. The earliest known human remains in South Asia date to 30,000 years ago. Sedentism, Sedentariness began in South Asia around 7000 BCE; ...

, and the medieval ''

Prithviraj Raso The ''Prithviraj Raso'' (IAST: Pṛthvīrāja Rāso) is a Braj language epic poem about the life of Prithviraj Chauhan (reign. c. 1177–1192 CE). It is attributed to Chand Bardai, who according to the text, was a court poet of the king. ...

''. The Mughals' ancestor

Timur Timur, also known as Tamerlane (1320s17/18 February 1405), was a Turco-Mongol conqueror who founded the Timurid Empire in and around modern-day Afghanistan, Iran, and Central Asia, becoming the first ruler of the Timurid dynasty. An undefeat ...

had been celebrated in a number of works, mostly called ''Zafarnama'' ("Book of Victories"), such as those by Shami and Yazdi. The latter is the best known, and was also produced in an illustrated copy in the 1590s by

Akbar Akbar (Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar, – ), popularly known as Akbar the Great, was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Humayun, under a regent, Bairam Khan, who helped the young emperor expa ...

's workshop. The tradition was continued by the Mughals with the ''

Baburnama The ''Bāburnāma'' (; ) is the memoirs of Babur, Ẓahīr-ud-Dīn Muhammad Bābur (1483–1530), founder of the Mughal Empire and a great-great-great-grandson of Timur. It is written in the Chagatai language, known to Babur as ''Türki'' "Turkic ...

'' (autobiography, not illustrated before Akbar), ''

Akbarnama The ''Akbarnama (; )'', is the official chronicle of the reign of Akbar, the third Mughal Emperor (), commissioned by Akbar himself and written by his court historian and biographer, Abul Fazl. It was written in Persian, which was the literary l ...

'' (biography), and ''

Tuzk-e-Jahangiri ''Tuzk-e-Jahangiri'' () or ''Jahangirnama'' () is the autobiography of Mughal Emperor Jahangir (1569–1627). The ''Tuzk-e-Jahangiri'' is written in Persian, and follows the tradition of his great-grandfather, Babur (1487–1530), who had writ ...

'' or ''Jahangir-nameh'' (memoirs of

Jahangir Nur-ud-din Muhammad Salim (31 August 1569 – 28 October 1627), known by his imperial name Jahangir (; ), was List of emperors of the Mughal Empire, Emperor of Hindustan from 1605 until his death in 1627, and the fourth Mughal emperors, Mughal ...

Gallery

File:The surrender of the Fort at Udgir to Khan Dawran (October 1636).jpg, The Mughal commander Khan Dauran captures the Fort at Udgir. File:The siege of Daulatabad (April-June 1633).jpg, The

Mughal Army The army of the Mughal Empire was the force by which the Mughal emperors established their empire in the 16th century and expanded it to its greatest extent at the beginning of the 18th century. Although its origins, like the Mughals themselve ...

captures

Daulatabad fort Daulatabad Fort, originally Deogiri Fort, is a historic fortified citadel located in Daulatabad village near Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India. It was the capital of the Yadavas (9th century – 14th century CE), for a brief time the capital of th ...

in the year 1633. File:A'zam Khan captures Fort Dharur (January 1631).jpg, Mughal commander Azim Khan captures Dharur. File:Prince Awrangzeb (Aurangzeb) facing a maddened elephant named Sudhakar (7 June 1633).jpg, Prince

Aurangzeb Alamgir I (Muhi al-Din Muhammad; 3 November 1618 – 3 March 1707), commonly known by the title Aurangzeb, also called Aurangzeb the Conqueror, was the sixth Mughal emperors, Mughal emperor, reigning from 1658 until his death in 1707, becomi ...

riding against the maddened

War elephant A war elephant is an elephant that is Animal training, trained and guided by humans for combat purposes. Historically, the war elephant's main use was to charge (warfare), charge the enemy, break their ranks, and instill terror and fear. Elep ...

Sudhakar in the year 1633. File:The siege of Qandahar (May 1631).jpg, The siege of the

Safavid The Guarded Domains of Iran, commonly called Safavid Iran, Safavid Persia or the Safavid Empire, was one of the largest and longest-lasting Iranian empires. It was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often considered the begi ...

garrison at

Kandahar Kandahar is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city, after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118 in 2015. It is the capital of Kandahar Pro ...

(May 1631) File:Shah Jahan Receives Persian Ambassadors.jpg, alt=Shah Jahan receiving Persian Safavid ambassador Ali Mardan Khan in the year 1638. 8],

Shah Jahan Shah Jahan I, (Shahab-ud-Din Muhammad Khurram; 5 January 1592 – 22 January 1666), also called Shah Jahan the Magnificent, was the Emperor of Hindustan from 1628 until his deposition in 1658. As the fifth Mughal emperor, his reign marked the ...

receiving

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

ambassador Ali Mardan Khan in the year 1638.Ebba Koch (1994), ''Diwan-i 'Amm and Chihil Sutun: The Audience Halls of Shah Jahan'', p.1

Texts online

*
Bádsháh-Náma of 'Abdu-L Hamíd Láhorí
''

Packard Humanities Institute The Packard Humanities Institute (PHI) is a non-profit foundation, established in 1987, and located in Los Altos, California, which funds projects in a wide range of conservation concerns in the fields of archaeology, music, film preservation, ...

''
Sháh Jahán-Náma of 'Ináyat Khán

References

External links

Illustrations from the Badshahnama
at

Royal Collection The Royal Collection of the British royal family is the largest private art collection in the world. Spread among 13 occupied and historic List of British royal residences, royal residences in the United Kingdom, the collection is owned by King ...

more images

at

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

Mughal royal books Books about the Mughal Empire Indian literature 17th-century Indian books 17th-century history books History books about the 17th century Islamic illuminated manuscripts Mughal art Indian manuscripts 17th-century illuminated manuscripts Indian chronicles 17th-century Persian books {{DEFAULTSORT:Padshahnama