Man Singh with Khan Jahan Koka presenting the keys of Daulatabad fortress to Emperor Aurangzeb (a fragment), attributed to Bhavanidas, Kishangarh, circa 1720

fragment of a larger painting, inscribed on the original Wellesley mount with blue inner borders in nast'aliq script 'Nawab Khanjahan Koka and Raja Man Singh Rathor presenting the keys of Daulatabad fort in the presence of Alamgir'

Richard Colley Wesley, 1st Marquess of Wellesley and 2nd Earl of Mornington (1760-1842), Governor-General of India
Sir Howard Hodgkin, C.H., C.B.E. (b.1932)
Acquired in 1965

Haidar 1995, fig.8
Haidar in Beach, Fischer and Goswamy, 2011, p.533, no.13

In good overall condition, as viewed.
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This is a fragment of a scene showing the aged Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb (b.1618, r.1658-1707) being presented with the keys of the great fort at Daulatabad by Nawab Khan Jahan Koka and Raja Man Singh of Kishangarh (r.1658-1706). Aurangzeb had taken up residence at the fort during the Mughal campaigns in the Deccan. A later tracing of the complete miniature from which this fragment comes and which includes the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb (b.1618, r.1658-1707), is illustrated in Delhi 1911, pp.108-9, no.C 164, pl. XLVI(a). The fragment with the aged Aurangzeb was formerly in the Spencer-Churchill Collection, Northwick Park, and Sven Gahlin collection. 

The importance of this fragment is that it belongs to a small group of miniatures of fine quality by the Mughal-trained Kishangarh artist Bhavanidas, the father of Dalchand, dating from around 1720, just at the time when he moved from the Mughal atelier to the Kishangarh court. This fragment, despite its small size, shows the jewel-like skills of Bhavanidas, and the character of his pre-Kishangarh Mughal style is evident, with the face of Man Singh almost anticipating his later Kishangarh style in the slightly exaggerated features and elongated, doe-eye. For works by this artist that include related vignettes see Leach 1995, vol.I, pl.74, pp.480, no.4.7; Leach 1998, pp.146-9, no.40; Haidar in Beach, Fischer and Goswamy 2011, pp.535-7, figs.2-5.

For other works by Bhavanidas in this catalogue, see lots 31, 54, 56 and 58. For a brief biography of the artist see lot 31.

Richard Colley Wesley, Early of Mornington and Marquess of Wellesley, was Lord of the Treasury under the British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger, Governor-General of India from 1798 and 1805, ambassador to Spain during the Napoleonic Wars and British Foreign Secretary from 1809 to 1812. He was Arthur Wellesley 1st Duke of Wellington's older brother.