indu texts should be translated into
Persian and thus rendered more accessible. The texts chosen were the two
epics, the _Ramayana_ and the _Mahabharata_, and of these Persian
abridgements were duly prepared. The abridgement of the _Mahabharata_,
known as the _Razmnama_, was probably completed in 1588 but illustrated
copies, including the great folios now in the palace library at Jaipur,
were probably not completed before 1595. As part of the project, its
appendix, the _Harivansa_ was also summarized and a separate volume with
fourteen illustrations all concerned with Krishna is part of the great
version now at Jaipur.[75] In these illustrations, it is Krishna the
prince who is chiefly shown, all the pictures illustrating his career
after he has left the cowherds. There is no attempt to stress his romantic
qualities or to present him as a lover. He appears rather as the great
fighter, the slayer of demons. Such a portrayal is what we might perhaps
expect from a Mughal edition. None the less the paintings are remarkable
interpretations, investing Krishna with an air of effortless composure,
and exalting his princely grace. The style is notable for its use of
smoothly flowing outlines and gentle shading, and although there is no
direct connection, it is these characteristics which were later to be
embodied in the Hindu art of the Punjab Hills.

Such interest by the Emperor may well have spurred Hindu members of the
court to have other texts illustrated for, ten to fifteen years later, in
perhaps 1615, a manuscript of the _Gita Govinda_ was produced, its
illustrations possessing a certain fairy-like refinement.[76] Krishna in a
flowing dhoti wanders in meadows gay with feathered trees while Radha and
her confidante appear in Mughal garb. Romance is hardly evident for it is
the scene itself with its rustic prettiness which is chiefly stressed. Yet
the patron by whom this version was commissioned may well have felt that
it was sensitively rendered and within its minor compass expressed to
some extent the magical enchantment distilled by the verses. That the
Emperor's stimulus survived his death is plain; for in about the year
1620, two manuscripts of the _Bhagavata Purana_ appeared--both in a style
of awkward crudity in which the idioms of Akbar's school of artists were
consciously aped.[77] The manuscripts in question are at Bikaner and it is
possible that one or two inferior Mughal artists, deprived of work at the
central c