Overview for Mughal Art: A study in Handicrafts
An important aspect of Mughal art, besides architecture and painting, is the handicraft. All the colour and glamour, the refinement and elegance and the dazzling splendour of the court and domestic lives of the Great Mughals and their noblemen are the gifts of handicrafts. Indeed without the artifacts it would not have been possible for the Grand Mughals to bring down the, ‘Paradise on Earth’. In view of the growing interest in India handicrafts in modern times an appreciation of Mughal handicrafts gets a renewed validity. It, therefore, becomes our duty to study, understand and preserve what remains of this great treasury. The present work is an attempt to fill the vacuum in this field. It is for the first time that a book on Mughal Handicraft is being brought out, and superbly so. After a general discussion on the social political and economic conditions of Mughal India the author goes on to expound the sources of Mughal decorative arts and the designs of decoration and finally describes the various forms of Mughal handicrafts illustrating them with works found on archaeological sites in India and select objects preserved in museums and private collection all over the world-all this in fascinating details.
Shanti Swarup (Author)
Shanti Swarup, (b 1916) is an eminent Art Historian. After completing his Masters degree in History (1939) and a degree in Law (1942) from University of Allahabad, he started his career as a lawyer at Azamgarh (U.P.). He, however, switched over to teaching and joined D.A.V. Postgraduate College, Azamgarh, as the Head of Department of History (1962). Pursuing his deep founded interest in Mughal Art, Sh. Swarup completed his doctorate from University of Gorakhpur on ‘Flora and Fauna in Mughal Art’. After his retirement from the college in 1977, he took up a Fellowship of the Indian Council of Historical Research. While working on the project he went to England as a Visiting Scholar on the invitation of the British Council to study Mughal Handicrafat in the museums in U.K. His major published works include Arts and Crafts of India and Pakistan, 5000 Years of Arts and Crafts of India and Pakistan and Flora and Fauna in Mughal Art.
Bagchee
