Humayun was interested in paintings from an early age. His father records gifting him illustrated manuscripts that were found in the library of the vanquished Ghazi Khan. This interest in painting intensified during his time at the Persian court of Shah Tahmasp. On recovering the throne of Kabul, Humayun invited artists to his court, offering them gold, silver and royal honours. He held artists in very high esteem: he had divided his administration into three classes, one of which, Ahl-i Murad or ‘those who are desired’, included architects, painters, musicians, as they were deemed the ‘delight of the world’. 
Humayun’s patronage laid the foundation for a distinct Mughal painting style. Young Akbar, on Humayun’s orders, learnt painting. He inherited artists from his father’s court and soon more than a hundred painters, predominantly Hindus, were honoured as ‘masters’. His influence on the arts was to be spectacular. Akbar, from the 1560s onwards, commissioned several illustrated manuscripts, and amongst them were the history of his own reign and the Persian translations of Mahabharata and Ramayana, all containing hundreds of illustrations of the text in the new Mughal style.