Padshahnamah fol. 217v
(plate 44)

Shan-Jahan receives Prince Awrangzeb at Lahore in 1640.

Shah-Jahan moved the Mughal court to Lahore from August 1638 to 1642, while his armies battled the forces of the Shah of Persia over control of the Kandahar Fort in nearby Afghanistan. Throughout this time Prince Awrangzeb was Governor of the Deccan, in central India, but he returned briefly to Lahore from 9th Jan 1640. The Emperor is shown placing his arms around his son while his father-in-law, the Prime Minister Asaf Khan, carries the jewelled dagger and turban ornament he will present to Awrangzeb as gifts. Although Shah-Jahan’s three other sons are shown beside him on the balcony, contemporary accounts suggest Prince Shah-Shuja was in Bengal in 1640 and the four Princes were in reality never together in Lahore while the court was based there.

This is the only depiction of the Lahore Fort in the Padshahnamah manuscript and the birds and angels painted on the ceiling accurately reflect the fort’s architectural decoration at the time. The figure standing below the Emperor, to the right, is Vazier Khan, then Governor of Lahore, famous for building a grand mosque in the city. 

The artist Murar signed the work on the step at the very bottom of the painting: ‘work of the slave of the court, Murar’. He painted the same decorative motif of the fire breathing dragon on the gold balustrade as in two of his other paintings in this manuscript: RCINs 1005025.ag and 1005025.am. 

Bibliography:
Milo Beach and Ebba Koch, King of the world : the Padshahnama, an imperial Mughal manuscript from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, 1996
Saqib Baburi, Beyond the Akbarnamah: Padshahnamahs and Official Regnal Chronography for Shah-Jahan Padshah (r. 1037/1628-1068/1658), 2010.