24 Women in a Page of the Timur Nama.

 

The piece is "Maka Agha Khanam wife of Prince Rukh granting an interview to Tuku Khanam complete" - folio 72a, c of the Timur Nama - Akbar's commissioned work done by his studio of illuminators, chronicalling the life of his great-great-grandfather, Timur. It appears in the book "Imaging sound : an ethnomusicological study of music, art, and culture in Mughal India" by Bonnie C. Wade in 1998, and is apparently in the provenance of the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library in India. There's a copy at the Internet Archive, where you can borrow the book electronically. This image is on page 304 of the webdoc. 

I have isolated 24 women in the miniature, to peer closer at their hats. There are several different types of hats here, along with other head coverings and a variety of clothes. While this does represent Babur's court, these images were painted a half century later, and I suspect the fashion of 1580 is of influence in the clothing worn.

Here are the images.

I may comment more on this later (I'm on deadline) but I was just so blown away by the variations in this single miniature, I had to post.

Research Breakthrough - Hats and Costumes of Mariam-uz-Zamani and Akbar's Harem.

Oh man. Oh golly. This may be my breakthrough piece to find.

Back in January, a Wikipedia contributor added this photo to the listing for Mariam-uz-Zamani, one of the Mughal women I have been researching for costume.

This oversaturated image came with very little notation, just that it's from a Royal Album dated January 1, 1600. That's pretty unlikely, so I've been digging in and exploring the Internet for (looks at clock) crap, about five hours now.

I finally found it by crossreferencing Mariam-uz-Zamani and Jahangir and exploring a multitude of images. It lives at the Museum of Fine Art, Boston. And I can order an even larger image. Here's the page link.

And here's the original image with its border.

And here's the inset.

The magnificent MFA website allows a great deal of detail capture, which has allowed me to get closer glimpses of these women in their harem. I am fascinated.

This woman seated next to Mariam-uz-Zamani appears to be wearing a full length caftan with what may be pants under (note the green cuffs at the ankles). She has either a wide band of cloth at the base of her hat or is wearing an underturban. Her hat is highly ornamented and appears to have a very sheer veil that goes from the top of her hat to under her chin. A second veil, dupatta or scarf is wrapped around her neck and shoulders, pulled up at the base of the neck. Like so many other instances, she is barefoot. 

This woman, though. There is an underveil that is sheer. It is attached at the top of her hat - and appears to have bands OVER IT along the hat itself. This hat is VERY similar to the basket hats I've been utilizing.

What's more, it includes a plume at the front bottom. She's also wearing an overveil or dupatta of some sort with embellishments of some sort. It's hard to determine if there is a coat (there are pink edges along her yellow striped caftan along her left leg and at the waist) and there seems to be another sheer layer over all of ut, as seen at the bottom of her right leg.

And then there this is this woman at the bottom of the photograph, conversing with men. She wears a very elaborate dupatta around her shoulders, a sheer outer layer over some form of shorter dress and gold pants, and CURLY TOED SHOES. Holy fish, y'all, I finally got a Mughal woman wearing shoes in an illumination. They appear to be similar to modern Indian wedding shoes - for men.

Her hat is thinner and curved more, but again, underveil completely under the chin (!), also attached to the top of the hat and strapped to the hat with bands. 

I'm just reeling at this one image. It has ALL THE HATS.

There's only one problem. Bishandas, the artist credited with this illumination, was born in 1590. The MFA believes this illumination was created around 1620. However, it depicts the birth of Jahangir, fourth Emperor of the Mughal Empire, born August 31st of 1569. Jahangir began his stint as emperor in 1605.

I do have to allow for the possibility of modern fashion. That is... hrm, there's probably a better term for this somewhere. You know all those great paintings in the Renaissance of the Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus, and how they're wearing Renaissance-era clothing? Artists paint what they know and what they see. And while extant examples might have been available (likely available, I would imagine) of what folks wore in 1569 for an artist to render it in 1620, there is a strong possibility that Bishandas created this image from previous depictions, with the influence of what would have been considered contemporary fashion of his time.

Those underveils, though.

It brings me back to this image of Aisan Daulat Begum, grandmother of Babur, the first Mughal emperor. as seen from Wikipedia above. The leaf is part of the Read Album at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York, formerly part of folio 86 of the Baburnama. The link to the image and page is here.

I do apologize for the excessive credit stamping - the links will take you to the clean images. I want to make sure others looking for these resources have bread crumbs for their trails.

The veil shown on Babur's grandmother has no banding over it.

One veil or two? Dupatta versus veil? Layering? So many questions to answer. 

This image from the Baburnama is believed to have been painted between 1590 and 1592 by the artist Sanvalah. The bordure was added in the 19th century when it was included in the Read Mughal Album.

I have much to think on. I was feeling pretty close and now I'm really starting to wonder where the rabbit hole will take me next. As for right now, this is my current best attempt at recreating a Mughal persona.