Rao Bharah and Jassa Jam
1619
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
About the artist
Artist
Bishandas
Bishandas, also Bishan Das or Bishn Das, was an Indian painter during the Mughal era.
See the richer artist page1619
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Rao Bharah and Jassa Jam is a 1619 paint by Bishandas, a Baroque work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
Two men sit side by side on patterned rugs against a plain wall. Their faces show age and wisdom, their robes rich with gold stitching. One grips a walking stick; the other holds folded papers. Bishndas painted them in 1618–20, but they never met. Copied from separate studies, the artist combined two real landowners into one scene. The men shared a great-grandfather, hinting at their quiet bond. See how Mughal artists mixed portraiture with storytelling. Look up Bishndas next.
The painting attributed to Bishndas depicts two Gujarati landowners, Rao Bharah and Jassa Jam, shown kneeling on a floral carpet with gold borders on indigo-dyed paper. Rao Bharah, dressed in white with a sword in his sash, faces his companion in profile, while Jassa Jam, with darker skin, kneels with clasped hands in a three-quarter view. Black ink inscriptions identify the figures and the artist, though the scene is likely an imagined composition combining separate studies made during their individual visits to Jahangir’s Mughal encampment in Gujarat. The discrepancy in scale between the…
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Bishandas, also Bishan Das or Bishn Das, was an Indian painter during the Mughal era.
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