V&A - Encounters - Exhibition

Europeans bring gifts to Shah Jahan. Mughal India
About 1650
Opaque watercolour on paper. From the Padshahnama manuscript

This page comes from an album documenting the life of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. It depicts Europeans offering him diplomatic gifts. Significantly, the foreigners are shown in an inferior position, outside the inner railings of the court. They are also portrayed in the less prestigious three-quarter view rather than in profile. In 1797 the album was presented to George III as a diplomatic gift from the Nawab of Oudh.