Tumanba Khan, His Wife, and His Nine Sons | Restored Mughal Wall Art

The Mongol ruler Tumanba Khan — an ancestor of Genghis Khan — surrounded by his wife and nine sons, depicted with the formal symmetry of dynastic memory.

Painted by Basawan (Indian, active ca. 1556-1600), ca. 1596, probably at Lahore. The folio belongs to a copy of the Chingiznama (Book of Genghis Khan) — an extract from Rashid al-Din's fourteenth-century Jami' al-tawarikh (Compendium of Chronicles) that describes the life of Genghis Khan and his descendants. The Mughals traced their own line back to him and commissioned this manuscript as an act of imperial self-fashioning.

Basawan was one of the towering painters of Akbar's atelier — celebrated for his psychological depth and the supple naturalism that would shape generations of Mughal court painting.

Restored from the museum archives by aurahliving.com.