DAS"--A.D. 1630.

A leaf from the National Portrait Album conceived by the Emperor
AKBAR, and amplified and executed by JAHANGIR and SHAH JAHAN. The
volume consists of portraits of the Royal Family of the GREAT MOGULS
and their principal supporters. These historic personages are
represented in the centre as single individuals, with their chief
officials and retainers in the border around them.

RAMDAS, a Hindu artist, was one of AKBAR'S artists who worked under
JAHANGIR and SHAH JAHAN. His signed works include the following:

BABURNAMA in the British Museum and South Kensington Museum.
AKBARNAMA in South Kensington Museum.
RAZMNAMA in the State Library, Jaipur, India.
TIMURNAMA in the Oriental Public Library, Bankipur, India.

[Illustration: "PORTRAIT OF MEHDI ALI GULI KHAN, COMMANDER OF
FORTRESS, BY RAMDAS"--A.D. 1630]

[Illustration: SILK FABRIC--A RARE EXAMPLE OF THE KIND PRODUCED BY THE
ROYAL LOOMS AT ISPAHAN, WHICH FLOURISHED UNDER THE DIRECT PATRONAGE OF
SHAH ABBAS THE GREAT (A.D. 1588-1629)]

"Oct. 18th, 1666.--To Court. It being ye first time his Ma'ty
(CHARLES II of England) put himself solemnly into Eastern fashion of
vest, changeing doublet, stiff collar, bands and cloake, into a comley
dress, after ye Persian mode. I had sometime before presented an
invective against our so much affecting the French fashion, to his
Majesty, in which I took occasion to describe the comelinesse and
usefulness of the Persian clothing, in ye very same manner his
Ma'ty now clad himself."--JOHN EVELYN (A.D. 1666), celebrated
historian and diarist.

* * * * *

[PAGE 27]

which is but ONE, reveals itself through countless phenomena which are
but reflections of ONE. "The PHANTASMAL is the BRIDGE to the REAL,"
says the mystic, and the immortal lines of J'AMI read:

_"Though in this world a hundred tasks thou tryest,
'Tis Love alone which from thyself will save thee.
Even from earthly love thy face avert not,
Since to the real it may serve to raise thee.
Ere A, B, C, are rightly apprehended,
How canst thou con the pages of the_ QUR'AN?
_A sage (so heard I) unto whom a scholar
Came craving counsel on the course before him,
Said, 'If thy steps be strangers to love's pathways,
Depart, learn Love, and then return before me,
For, shouldst thou fear to drink wine from form's Flagon,
Thou canst not drain the draughts of the Ideal.