![Raja Tuljaji riding in procession]( "Raja Tuljaji riding in procession")
Paintingat the Deccani courts grew from a hybrid cultural back-ground comparable to that of the Mughal school, but with quite different and regrettably short-lived results. By the 16th century five Muslim sultanates had emerged in the Deccan, which, acting together for the only time in their history, disposed of the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar in 1565. Afterwards they constantly formed factions and went to war in an almost frivolous manner. Unlike the Mughals, the Sultans failed to take the business of state-craft and territorial domination seriously. They put more passion into the pursuit of courtly pleasures and the patronage of music, literature and the arts. These projects benefited from a rich cultural mixture of Hindu court traditions inherited from the Vijayanagar Empire with those introduced by the many Middle Eastern immigrants Persians, Arabs, Turks and Africans who had been attracted by the wealth of the Deccani kingdoms. Some European influence was also present, but it was less conspicuous than in Mughal art The period of greatest achievement lasted only a few decades, for the empire-building Mughals found little difficulty in subjugating the Deccani rulers. Of the three courts known to have patronised painting, Ahmadnagar fell in 1600, while Bijapur and Golconda were finally taken by Aurangzeb in 1686-7.
![The minister Munir-al-Mulk Aristu Jah with attendants Hyderabad]( "The minister Munir-al-Mulk Aristu Jah with attendants Hyderabad")
A study of a richly caparisoned horse held by a groom, whose costume shows some European influence is the work of one of lbrahim's leading painters. Its freshness of colouring is set off by the use of gold, and the trees and plants arc suggested by a deftly attenuated line and delicate stippling. A painting of a female ascetic seated by a stream [plate x6], although it is another later and less fine version of an original work of lbrahim's period, displays the lush landscape conventions and compact density of composition of Bijapur painting.
In 1636 Bijapur was compelled to accept Mughal suzerainty. Lavish exchanges of presents always accompanied political relations between states, and paintings as well as elephants, jewels and money travelled in both directions. The fully developed Mughal style of portraiture inevitably began to influence contemporary work at Bijapur and Golconda. Even so, its naturalistic conventions were often interpreted with subtlety and splendour by the southern artists. A portrait of Muhammad Adil Shah (1627-56) riding an elephant, accompanied by his minister who fans him, is derived from a Mughal model, as seen for example in a brush-drawing of a Mughal prince riding the elephant Mahabir Deb; as if happens, the inscription in Shah Jahan's hand records that this elephant was presented to him as tribute by Muhammad Adil Shah. While the Mughal artist has meticulously emphasized the finely textured wrinkles and mottling of the elephant's skin, the two Deccani painters have set its smoky dark mass against a vivid blue ground, throwing into relief the sumptuous textile patterns and the Sultan's gold coat, which has been minutely pricked to catch the light.
![A Yogini seated beside a stream Bijapur]( "A Yogini seated beside a stream Bijapur")
Writer-Andrew Topsfield
Paintingat the Deccani courts grew from a hybrid cultural back-ground comparable to that of the Mughal school, but with quite different and regrettably short-lived results. By the 16th century five Muslim sultanates had emerged in the Deccan, which, acting together for the only time in their history, disposed of the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar in 1565. Afterwards they constantly formed factions and went to war in an almost frivolous manner. Unlike the Mughals, the Sultans failed to take the business of state-craft and territorial domination seriously. They put more passion into the pursuit of courtly pleasures and the patronage of music, literature and the arts. These projects benefited from a rich cultural mixture of Hindu court traditions inherited from the Vijayanagar Empire with those introduced by the many Middle Eastern immigrants Persians, Arabs, Turks and Africans who had been attracted by the wealth of the Deccani kingdoms. Some European influence was also present, but it was less conspicuous than in Mughal art The period of greatest achievement lasted only a few decades, for the empire-building Mughals found little difficulty in subjugating the Deccani rulers. Of the three courts known to have patronised painting, Ahmadnagar fell in 1600, while Bijapur and Golconda were finally taken by Aurangzeb in 1686-7. 
