The Twilight of the Imperial Tradition In the shifting landscape of the early eighteenth century, a period marked by both the fading grandeur of the Mughal Empire and the rising lyrical beauty of regional schools, Bhavanidas emerged as a preeminent master of the brush. Trained within the rigorous and prestigious confines of the Mughal imperial workshop, he was a scholar of the fine line and a devotee of meticulous detail. His early career was defined by his immersion in the imperial tradition, where he spent much of the first two decades of the century perfecting the art of generational portr…