A warrior brandishing a sword

It is a Mughal painting attributed to Dasavanta, also called Daswanth, and is believed to have been produced in India between approximately 1570 and 1575. The work is made with gouache, gold, and ink on paper and has been mounted onto an album page framed by red and blue borders decorated with gold scrolling foliage (Sotheby’s, 2015). The painting shows a single warrior in a powerful stance, lifting a sword while carrying a shield. The figure is remarkably large for a work on paper, measuring about 17 cm from his feet to the tip of the sword. His loose trousers, weapons, armour, facial features, and energetic fighting posture recall the monumental figures seen in Akbar’s Hamzanama, an epic illustrated series created in the imperial workshop between roughly 1560 and 1575 (Sotheby’s, 2015). Although the painting shares many visual features with Hamzanama illustrations, it cannot have come from that manuscript because it was made on paper rather than cotton cloth. Instead, Sotheby’s connects its style to early painters in Akbar’s atelier, especially Dasavanta. A very similar warrior appears in a Jaipur Razmnama illustration designed by Dasavanta; the two figures resemble one another in posture, weaponry, and details of costume, although they differ in size (Sotheby’s, 2015). Dasavanta was among the most gifted Hindu artists employed by Emperor Akbar. Abu’l Fazl’s A’in-i Akbari, as quoted by Sotheby’s, records that Akbar noticed the young Daswanth drawing figures and patterns on a wall, recognised his exceptional ability, and brought him into the imperial workshop. Abu’l Fazl later placed Dasavanta third among the most important artists of the royal atelier, after Mir Sayyid ‘Ali and ‘Abd al-Samad, and described him as becoming “matchless in his time” (Abu’l Fazl, cited in Sotheby’s, 2015). Dasavanta’s career ended because he died by suicide in 1584. Before his death, he contributed to several major imperial manuscripts, including the Cleveland Tutinama, the Hamzanama, the Tarikh-i Khandan-i Timuriyya, the Jaipur Razmnama, and possibly the 1570 Anvar-i Suhayli (Sotheby’s, 2015). Rice’s study of Mughal workshop practices further shows that Dasavanta was a key figure in the Jaipur Razmnama, where he is recorded as a designer twenty-four times and as a colourist twice (Rice, 2017). The artwork shows the cultural environment of Akbar’s court, where Persian and Indian artistic traditions were actively combined. The Razmnama was Akbar’s Persian rendering of the Sanskrit Mahabharata through cooperation between Sanskrit scholars and Persian translators (Perso-Indica, n.d.). Its illustrated copies brought Hindu epic narratives into Mughal courtly visual culture and contributed to the development of a distinctive Mughal artistic style (Perso-Indica, n.d.; Rice, 2017). The painting of this warrior likely represents an idealised image of courage, and military strength. His raised sword and shield evoke the dramatic battle imagery associated with the Hamzanama and Razmnama traditions. The painting therefore demonstrates both Dasavanta’s expressive approach to the human figure and the broader artistic culture of Akbar’s court, in which manuscript illustration, heroic narrative, and cross-cultural experimentation came together (Sotheby’s, 2015; Rice, 2017; Beach, 1982).