Govardhan

Who is Govardhan?

Govardhan was a noted Indian painter of the Mughal school of painting. He was the son of another painter, Bhavani Das. He joined the imperial service during the reign of Akbar and he continued his work till the reign of Shah Jahan. The examples of his work survived till date show that he was fond of rich, sensuous colour and softly modeled forms.

Govardhan was one of the illustrators of the Baburnama presently located in the British Museum, London. The Jahangir celebrating the festival of Ab-Pashi, presently kept in the Raza Library in Rampur, India is one of his significant creations. The portraits created by him in the Jahangir albums are presently in the collections of various American and European museums. He depicted the different human physiques of the Indians with much accuracy. An excellent portrait of him was prepared by one of his contemporary painter, Daulat.