Johnson 1,28

A night ceremony.

By Govardhan, Mughal, c.1735-40.

Richard Johnson Collection. Purchased 1807.

Numbered 7 in Persian inventory note; inscribed on reverse: ... ‘hazrat-i shah naqsh’ ... ‘Govardhan’ (?)’ musavvir’ (this inscription is partly missing where the surface has been torn away, but it indicates that the mulla is of the Naqshbandi order and that the picture is by the painter Govardhan).

Gouache; on an album page with gilt-decorated navy blue border and gilt-sprinkled outer margin.

340 by 220 mm; page 464 by 310 mm.

Reproduced: Losty (1986), 61.

A mulla bearing a lamp presides over a ceremony where girls and youths bear gifts at night. The mulla is dressed in green with a fur collar, and his accolyte stands behind him. The girls are ranged on either side with a child in the centre, on a terrace flanked by buildings under a starry sky.

Note: Although the inscription on the reverse is defective the miniature can be attributed with confidence to Govardhan on the basis of his thirty-seven miniatures executed c.1734-39 in the manuscript of ‘Karnama-i-‘ishq’ by Mukhlis, Johnson Album 38. Throughout the manuscript details similar to those in the present miniature are to be found. These include buildings with bands of floral decoration at the top, lines of dark trees beyond terraces, crenellated clouds of various colours, evenly dotted stars, simple tree-trunks, formal garden foregrounds, terraces edged with a standard and repetitive band of decoration, formalised grass at the edge of pools, a characteristic girl’s head and face with a pink-tinted eye corner, and the gold trim of the ‘chadar’ running through the ear. The manuscript was produced under Mughal patronage, presumably at Delhi. A portrait of a lady by Govardhan is reproduced in Mehta (1926), pl.36.