Emperor Akbar and Gosain Jadrup, Folio from the St. Petersburg Muraqqa’

Set within splendidly detailed borders, this painting depicts the aged Emperor Akbar (r. 1556–1605) conversing with the famous Hindu ascetic Gosain Jadrup. They are seated outside Jadrup’s humble hermitage, located on a hillside outside the city of Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh. Although Akbar’s rule was considered to be divinely sanctioned—as signified by the halo—he is concerned with the enlightenment of his soul and is seeking spiritual wisdom from the Hindu holy man. To demonstrate respect, the emperor has removed his gold-embroidered shoes, which are held by an attendant on his left. Akbar describes Jadrup in his memoirs, the Akbarnama, as "one who understands the mysteries of the heart." The meeting with Jadrup had a profound impact not only on the emperor, but also on his son and successor, Jahangir (r. 1605–27). Jahangir commissioned this painting, and documented his own spiritual encounters with the saint, both visually and verbally, in his memoirs, the Jahangirnama. Mughal rulers in India were connoisseurs of Persian poetry and calligraphy and they collected Persian calligraphy specimens into albums called muraqqaʾs. The three panels on the other side of this painting (verso) were written by Mir Imad al-Hasani from Qazvin, Iran, who was widely regarded as the unsurpassed master of the nastaʿliq script and was greatly admired by Mughal rulers. The upper panel is a reflection on the virtue of compassion, and the two lower panels contain identical verses from a poem by the famed Persian poet Hafiz. The folio belongs to a now-dispersed album of calligraphy specimens and paintings originally compiled in the 17th century at the Mughal court. The album was looted by Nadir Shah of Iran during his conquest of Delhi in 1739, and the elaborate floral borders were added when it was reassembled in Iran in the 1750s. Today, the bulk of the album is held in the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, Russian Academy of Sciences, in Saint Petersburg, thus commonly referred to as the Saint Petersburg Muraqqaʾ.