Maharaja Anup Singh of Bikaner

Maharaja Anup Singh's ancestors submitted to Mughal forces in 1570 and sealed their new allegiance by giving a Bikaner princess in marriage to the Mughal emperor Akbar (reigned 1556-1605). So began a long relationship between the Bikaner kingdom and the Mughal court. Like many Hindu rulers who became subjects of the Muslim Mughal emperors, Anup Singh (reigned 1674-1698) served in Mughal military campaigns in various parts of South Asia. He achieved a position of high rank and died while serving as governor of the Deccan, the vast central plateau region of southern India.

The Bikaner alliance with the Mughals resulted in, among other things, the Bikaner court's adoption of Mughal painting conventions and styles. The Mughal inspiration for this portrait of Maharaja Anup Singh is evident primarily in its choice of subject matter and composition. Equestrian portraits were not regularly produced in Rajasthani workshops before the Mughal period, and the greenish background and simple indication of ground and sky are features that can be traced to early-seventeenth-century Mughal paintings.