introduced to the Islamic world much earlier, in the anthology of wisdom
entitledal-Mujtanaby ibn Durayd (d. 933).^13 Plutarch relates that when
Alexander visited Diogenes in Corinth, he found him sunning himself. In
response to Alexander’s question of what he desires, Diogenes merely
requests that he“stand from between me and the sun.”^14 Nizami’s erudite
conflation of the philosophers and the encounter with Alexander offers
sophisticated readers layers of meaning within an apparent allegory.
Despite the apparent contradiction in conflating the rationalist Plato
with the cynical Diogenes, Nizami uses the composite philosopher to
sketch afigure recognizable as a Sufidervish seeking divine union through
disciplined renunciation. In the context of a guide for princes, thefigure of
Plato-as-Diogenes obliquely supports mendicant dervishes’critiques of
state power and wealth by appealing to higher orders of truth.
3.2 Plato and the Organ of Painting
The only illustration of this scene appears in a late sixteenth-century
Mughal manuscript of Nizami’sKhamsa(Pentalogy), including hisfive
major epic poems. The painting contextualizes the poem’s meanings in an
era of encounter with European visual arts. [Plate 5] It features Plato
playing the organ. Golden dots on Plato’s armpit, foot, and the sleeping
animals suggest constellations corresponding to the music of the spheres.
While Plato wears Mughal dress, the landscape depicted around him
incorporates European perspectivalism and naturalism in the clouds,
adopting the Renaissance European convention of depicting distant land-
scape in blue hues. It also retains Chinese-influenced, post-Timurid styli-
zations of mountains and leaves.^15 Foregoing the Aristotelian connotations
of theOrganon, the painting shows one of the earliest organs collected by
ambassadors of the court of Emperor Akbar to the Portuguese colony in
Goa in 1581, forerunner of the harmonium still common in Indian classical
music.^16 Framed by a branching river, thefigure is surrounded by many
sleeping animals.
The illustration has proven difficult to interpret. Bonnie Wade comments:
The spirit of this painting remains puzzling to me, however. Some details lead one
to wonder whether a compliment to anyone was intended. On one of the‘Italian’
panels of the organ, the painting of a man with a tipped derby hat, looking like a sad
sack, inserts an element of humor (or sarcasm?) to the scene. Most striking,
(^13) Rosenthal, 1958. (^14) Plutarch, 2004 : 14. (^15) Lentz, 1993 : 255. (^16) Juneija, 2015 : 63.
Plato and the Organ of Painting 83