Akbar giving thanks on hearing of the victory in Bengal

This is an illustration to the official history of the reign of the Mughal emperor Akbar (r.1556–1605) entitled the Akbarnama (Book of Akbar).
In 1574, in Bengal, a province far from the centres of Mughal power, a new ruler called Daud Khan defied Akbar’s authority. Akbar launched a major campaign against Daud and his Afghan supporters, leading the army eastwards to attack them at the city of Patna. The city fell, and the Mughals took its considerable treasure, including gold, armour and 265 magnificent elephants. Daud fled, and Akbar returned to Fatehpur, leaving his army in pursuit of the rebel and his forces. A protracted series of confrontations and even a temporary rapprochement failed to subdue Bengal. In July 1576, despite it being the height of the rainy season, Akbar decided to lead the campaign once more. The emperor and his reinforcements had progressed only a short distance from Fatehpur when a messenger suddenly appeared in the royal encampment, bringing the surprising news of a decisive Mughal victory. As proof, he threw Daud’s severed head before the emperor. Akbar’s authority was thereafter established in the cities of Bengal, but the administration of the province was never as settled as that of others in the empire.
[Akbarnama, English translation: vol.III, pp. 140-153; 169-180; 248-50]
The Akbarnama was commissioned by Akbar as the official chronicle of his reign. It was written in Persian by his court historian and biographer, Abu’l Fazl, between 1590 and 1596, and the V&A’s partial copy of the manuscript is thought to have been illustrated between about 1592 and 1595. This is thought to be the earliest illustrated version of the text, and drew upon the expertise of some of the best royal artists of the time. Many of these are listed by Abu’l Fazl in the third volume of the text, the A’in-i Akbari, and some of these names appear in the V&A illustrations, written in red ink beneath the pictures, showing that this was a royal copy made for Akbar himself. After his death, the manuscript remained in the library of his son Jahangir, from whom it was inherited by Shah Jahan.

The V&A purchased the manuscript in 1896 from Frances Clarke, the widow of Major General John Clarke, who bought it in India while serving as Commissioner of Oudh between 1858 and 1862.