Friday, December 27, 2013

Did Mughals have dwarf trees grown in containers?


I was looking at the photos of the Rare Book Society of India Facebook page and came across this one. It is a detail of a gouache painting on paper, Bundi style, Rajasthan school, early 18th century (Copyright Trustees of the British Museum). The plant growing in a container with feet is surprisingly similar to bonsai. Did such plants really exist in Mughal India or this plant was simply imagined by the artist?

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