Invader Enthroned: The Indian Portraits of Nadir Shah and Their Local and British Collectors

The conquest of Delhi in 1739 shook India and stunned the world. Despite the horror of his invasion, Nadir Shah (r. 1736–47) was commemorated in dozens of portraits from across the subcontinent. Contemporary depictions of the Iranian conqueror align with his imperial rhetoric and the new aesthetic of his Indo-Persian realm, but the vast majority were created posthumously between the mid-eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries. More curious is the fact that many of them are inserted into dynastic portrait series of Mughal emperors even though Nadir Shah did not stay to rule. Why did local painters continue to glorify a foreign invader and plunderer for another century after his death? The motivations are further complicated by two very different groups of patrons and collectors—local and British elites in India. Nadir Shah’s defeat of Delhi empowered regional rulers and emboldened British imperialist ambitions. Their divergent perspectives and the roles they played in the viral circulation of Nadir Shah’s image across India form the core of this investigation.