Lord Krishna painting from Mahabharata

The ladies of Krishna’s harem watch sacrificial horse, a painting by Bhagvan from a manuscript of Razmnama, the Persian translation of the Mahabharata.

Two most prominent historians of Akbar’s reign, Abd al-Kadir Badau’ni and Abu’l Fazl, refer to Akbar’s commissioning a Persian translation of the Mahabharata from Naqib Khan in A.D. 1582, in which Badau’ni collaborated reluctantly, as he believed that the book was riddled with absurdities. The literal translation by these two and others, done with the help of Brahmans, was then converted into fine prose by Abu’l Fazl’s brother Faizi. In this painting, we see Yudhishthira bringing the sacrificial horse to Krishna’s harem and his women admiring it. The scene, Bhagvan presents, is a very colorful one. During Akbar’s rule, art in India took impressive strides forward as he brought together Hindu and Muslim painters together for the task of illustrating Persian and Indian manuscripts and books.