The Departure of Prince Shah-Shuja for Kabul (16 March 1638)

The Departure of Prince Shah-Shuja for Kabul (16 March 1638) is an opaque watercolour with metallic paint on paper, painted c. 1640–50 and measuring 34.3 × 23.9 cm. It is a folio (fol. 147v, plate 32) of the Windsor Padshahnama, the imperial illustrated chronicle of Shah Jahan's reign, now in the Royal Collection Trust (RCIN 1005025.ag). The scene shows Prince Shah-Shuja taking leave of his father on the jharoka, the viewing balcony of the Hall of Public Audience. His grandfather, the prime minister Asaf Khan, stands directly behind him, and his brothers stand behind the emperor. Below, courtiers assemble, and some wear cameos and medals bearing the emperor's likeness on their necks or turbans (Royal Collection Trust, n.d.). The manuscript's text identifies the occasion as the prince's departure for the Deccan, but the Royal Collection Trust argues that it more probably records his departure from Agra for Kabul in March 1638, since the nobles shown are those appointed to accompany him against the Safavids. This reading fits the political situation. In 1638 the Safavid governor Ali Mardan surrendered Kandahar to the Mughals, and Shah Jahan sent Shah-Shuja to Kabul with 20,000 horsemen to guard against a Persian response (Calabria 2022, 8–9). A "chain of justice" of bells and animal tails hangs beneath the balcony. It recalls Jahangir's golden chain of petition and here signals Shah Jahan's authority and his recent success over the Persian ruler (Royal Collection Trust, n.d.). Kalb (2023, 757–62) reads Windsor Padshahnama audience scenes as imperial documents, not neutral records. They separate the emperor above from the courtiers below, and she cites this folio (761 n. 66) as a darbar scene whose attendants are bearded men, not beardless eunuchs. The painter signed on the scroll held by the courtier Afzal Khan, beside the chain: "the work of the slave of the court, the lowliest, Murar" (Royal Collection Trust, n.d.). Murar is therefore the form of the name written on the folio and the form used in museum cataloguing, including by the Victoria and Albert Museum. The V&A attributes to him the replacement heads in Shah Jahan Riding with One of His Sons, a painting by Manohar of c. 1615 that Murar altered c. 1630, signing in minute inscriptions near the figures (Victoria and Albert Museum 2025). Some catalogues and online databases render the name as Murad, and the two forms differ by one letter in Persian script, so they are likely variant transliterations of one name. In either form the name belongs to a Shah Jahan–period court painter, and it should not be confused with Prince Murad Bakhsh, Shah Jahan's youngest son, who appears in many paintings as a sitter.