MUGHAL INDIA, CIRCA 1580

The grandson of Samokhan Singh, Raja of Kishangarh, Naubat Khan was sent to be raised in Akbar’s court as a symbol of his family’s submission to Mughal rule. He probably began to study music under his grandfather, himself a talented musician and developed his skills with the rudra veena, a stringed instrument made by suspending two large pumpkin resonators beneath a wide stringed neck. He was a recognizable presence at the Mughal court: he is depicted in the Akbarnama kept in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (IS.2:113-1896), and also receives a mention in Jahangir’s autobiography (Bonnie C. Wade, Imagining Sound: an Ethnomusicological study of music, art, and culture in Mughal India, Austin, 1998, p. 120). Akbar arranged his marriage to the daughter of his court musician Tansen, and eventually Naubat Khan was promoted to being the darogha of the Imperial Naqqarkhana.

While portraits of Mughal notables are often seen, Naubat Khan is one of only musician of whom portraits are known to have survived (the other being Tansen). Other portraits of him include one in the British Museum (1989,0818,0.1), another in the Boston Museum of Fine Art (17.3102), and a third in the San Diego Museum of Art (1990.379). Though the second two of these were painted long after his death, he is instantly recognisable from his swarthy complexion, white robes, and the trusty rudra veena on his shoulder.