The Birth of Prince Salim
| Support Type: | Paper |
| Paint Type: | Watercolor |
| Current Location: | Museum of fine arts, Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
| Location History: | The painting was originally formed and part of the Jahangirnama manuscript produced in the Mughal court. It was later entered in a private collection before becoming part of the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where it is preserved today. |
This painting shows a very private and joyful moment inside the women's quarters of the Mughal palace, the zenana, right after Prince Salim (who later became Emperor Jahangir) is born. Bishan Das, the artist, was known for his skill in painting real people and real moments, and here he takes us somewhere the public was never normally allowed to see. In the middle of the scene the newborn baby is being carried to his mother, and around them the women of the household are busy with the excitement of the moment, some are talking, some are singing, and a group of eunuchs, who guarded and served in the women's palace, are clapping and celebrating along with everyone else. An elderly woman, likely the grandmother, sits calmly in a chair, watching over things the way older family members often do at such moments. Even the entrance to the palace is shown decorated with hanging flowers and a curtain drawn across it, which tells us that this space was meant to be closed off and protected, a private world within the larger palace. What I take from this painting is that it is not just recording a birth, it is recording the birth of an emperor's son, an event of huge political and personal importance for the Mughal dynasty. Yet instead of showing grand court ceremony, the artist chooses to show tenderness, women's labor, care, gossip, and celebration, the human side of an event that would go on to shape the history of an empire. It reminds us that behind every powerful ruler was a very ordinary, very human moment of birth, surrounded by women whose presence and role in royal life rarely gets recorded so intimately in Mughal art. In a way, the painting gives voice and visibility to a part of palace life that history usually leaves out.