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Mughal Painting

Mughal Painting

-  Prof Kavita Singh

This course studies the history of Mughal painting, from its roots in Persian painting and pre-Mughal painting in India, its origins in the court of Humayun, through its development under the ‘great Mughals,’ Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan. While most surveys of Mughal painting stop at this point, this course tracks the later history of Mughal painting, both in the imperial center under the late Mughal emperors, and in the provinces such as Awadh and Murshidabad which became cultural centers that rivaled, and then outstripped, the Mughal court in the 18th c. The course considers the transmutation of Mughal courtly art into Company School and Bazaar painting, and ends with a consideration of the politics of contemporary miniature painting in India and Pakistan. Using new research, this course attempts to place paintings in their context of production, and their reception – in their own times and today.

General Books:

 


• Susan Stronge, Painting for the Mughal Emperor, The Art of the Book, 1560-1660 V&A London, 2002

• A course reader is available in the library.

 

 

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.