Add Or 4039

Album illustrating the provinces of the Mughal Empire, compiled for Colonel Jean Baptiste Gentil (1726-99).

By Faizabad artists, 1770.

Inscribed inside cover: ‘Cet atlas appartient a Mr. Gentil l’Indien’; o title-page, f.1: ‘Empire Mogol divisé en 21 soubahs ou Gouvernements tiré de differens ecrivains du pais a Faizabad. MDCCLXX. Mr.’ [Persian seal] ‘Colonel au service de France dans les Indis orientalis.’ Colonel Gentil’s Persian seal appears inside both covers and at the bottom of the title-page: ‘Jantil Bahadur Nazim Jang Muni al-Mulk Rafi‘ al-Daulah, 1182’ [Gentil, governor of war, light of the kingdom, eminent in the dominion, 1772-3].

Album covered in patterned blue Chinese silk, ..... cm; water-colour and ink, 43 folios, 375 by 540 mm.

Purchased 1978.

Published with facsimiles of the maps and edited text in Susan Gole, ‘Leaves from the Gentil Atlas’ (New Delhi, 1988).

Note: The volume contains 21 maps of the ‘subahs’ of the Mughal empire faced by lists of the places to be found in each ‘subah’. Each of the maps has appropriate little illustrations in pale water-colour around it concerning the produce or fame of the province concerned. Similar illustrations are found in Gentil’s ‘Abrégé historique des Souverains de l’Indoustan ou Empire Mogol’ of 1772, now with most of Gentil’s collections of manuscripts and albums paintings in the Bibliothèque National, Paris, having been given to Louis XVI after his return from India to France in 1777. One album of paintings, some in similar style to this atlas, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum. For this and a description of Gentil’s career and collections, see M. Archer, ‘Company Paintings: Indian Paintings of the British Period’ (Ahmedabad/London, 1992), 117-123. See also M. Archer, ‘Colonel Gentil’s Atlas: an early series of Company drawings’, ‘India Office Library and Records, Annual Report 1978’ (London, 1979), 41-5. Our atlas is apparently a private copy kept by Gentil and not given to the King: it is important for its demonstration of how early the court artists of Oudh were influenced by European ideas and techniques.

The atlas has been published in facsimile by Susan Gole, see ‘Maps of Mughal India drawn by Colonel Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Gentil, agent for the French Government to the Court of Shuja-ud-daula at Faizabad, in 1770’, New Delhi, 1988

f.1v ‘Tables des cartes manuscriptes’, listing the maps described below.

f.2 Delhi. ‘Raja Delou fondateur de Dely’. Picture of ruler and city being built.

f.3 Shahjehanabad. Emperor’s throne, howdah, canopy, insignia, chobdar, soontahburdar, jewels, kettle drums, cymbals, trumpet, flags, etc.

f.4 Akbarabad. Bell installed by Jahangir outside the palace for complainants.

f.4v Akbarabad. Watermelons, grapes, orange tree, figure approaching a house and garden.

f.5 Akbarabad. Fortune teller, doctor, apothecary, Brahma and four main castes, Ganesh, Hanuman, Birth of Krishna.

f.6 Ajmer. Desert with water-melons and camels, sarus crane, man and ascetic.

f.7 Ajmer. The Mughal emperor receiving from the pirzada of Ajmer (?Mu’in al-Din Chisthi?) a bow showing that heaven approved of the empire. The Rana of Mewar receiving a ‘tika’ to mark his recognition as sovereign of Chitor. The emperor’s musicians. A four-armed deity being worshipped. Ascetics.

f.8 Malwa. Two figures drinking. A betel vine.

f.9 Malwa. Armed elephants, horse and soldiers in armour all equipped for war. Weapons, lynx, man and woman.

f.10 Gujarat. Saiva ascetics, geese, cranes, plantain tree, bulbul.

f.11 Gujarat. Somnath temple and worshippers. Bride and bridegroom, man and woman, bull, bull and ascetic. Yellow flower, grapes, mango, camel, shrine, Krishna disappearing into a tree.

f.12 Khandesh. Woman with garland and water-pot, drinking scene, elephant and lion-fight, fireworks.

f.13 Khandesh. Worship of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, four-armed goddess and four-armed god.

f.14 Bengal. Flowers, doves, lotus, mulberry.

f.14v Bengal. Cypress tree, flower, yellow bird (piluk).

f.15 Bengal. Woman, Jagannath temple, Boar avatar of Vishnu.

f.16 Bihar. White opium poppy.

f.17 Bihar. Rama and Sita, Gaya temple, Baijnath temple, games: pachisi, chequers. Performing monkey.

f.18 Oudh. Worshippers with music by a temple of Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita.

f.19 Oudh. Siva, Vishnu, Ravana being defeated by Rama and Lakshmana. Tiger hunt, animals, birds, ascetics, Jagannath car, hook-swinging.

f.20 Allahabad. Plan of fort.

f.21 Allahabad. Gymnastics. Place of worship at ‘sangam’ with the river goddesses Yamuna, Sarasvati and Ganga. Jahangir period coin. Bird-fighting with partridges and quails. Banyan tree in underground temple at Allahabad. Doctor, travellers’ serai, mosque.

f.22 Berar.

f.23 Berar. Purification in river. Holi festival, Egg play, worshippers at temple. Man and woman, animals.

f.24 Hyderabad.

f.25 Hyderabad. Procession of Nizam and armed retainers, Brahma, Fish avatar of Vishnu, rainbow, Churning of the Ocean.

f.26 Bidar. Four nimbate rulers.

f.27 Bidar. Twelve types of ascetic. Bidri-ware maker and his products.

f.28 Aurangabad.

f.29 Aurangabad. Ellora caves. Four types of ascetic, man and woman. Maratha ruler, and army in procession.

f.30 Bishapur.

f.31 Bishapur. Man and woman, jugglers, Krishna on lotus leaf, Brahma, four castes, Universe preserved by the lotus of Brahma, Siva.

f.32 Kandahar.

f.33 Kandahar. Six types of ascetic, jugglers, man and woman, horse, camel.

f.34 Kashmir.

f.35 Kashmir. Animals including musk deer and black and white bears, dancing girls, Devi slaying Mahishasura.

f.36 Tatta.

f.37 Tatta. Musicians, dancing girls, suttee scene, woman being buried alive with her husband, female ascetic, water-melon, man and woman, giraffe.

f.38 Kabul. Wrestlers, Narasimha avatar of Vishnu,, elephant, camel, ram and cock-fighting.

f.40 Multan.

f.41 Multan. Muharram festival, camel carrying body of ‘Ali, Gabriel, Burak, Muslim tomb, judge and punishments including: adulterer being buried alive, man being trampled and dragged by an elephant, fired from gun, beaten, tied by neck and foot.

f.42 Lahore.

f.43 Lahore. Bakr Id festival. Lover burning his arm with red hot iron, Ferris wheel, ascetics.