The scene in this double-page composition depicts Akbar hunting. It takes place after the great Mughal victory over the seemingly impregnable Rajput fortress of Chitor in February 1568. The Hindu forces defending Chitor had put up fierce resistance, for which Akbar made them pay a heavy price: on his orders nearly 30,000 men were killed, and many prisoners were taken. No other campaign would be concluded in the same way, and these extremely harsh reprisals made other rulers capitulate quickly in subsequent conflicts. Later that year, the emperor set out from Agra to attack the similarly daunting fort at Ranthambhor, but paused en route at Delhi. Here, he visited holy shrines and hunted at nearby Palam. Abu'l Fazl, the author of the Akbarnama, describes the different purposes served by hunting. A primary aim was to provide an opportunity for the emperor to assess the qualities of his men when under pressure and in danger, which allowed him to deploy them to best advantage in battle. Hunting provided a pretext for Akbar to arrive without warning in different parts of his domains to see for himself that they were being administered fairly. It also allowed him to move large numbers of armed men into areas of potential rebellion as a silent threat, which was often enough to avoid a military confrontation. Abu'l Fazl mentions this particular hunt only briefly in his text, but records that it took the elaborate form of a 'qamargah' in which beaters were sent out over a huge area and then moved back towards its centre, trapping the animals within a circular space. It was the emperor’s prerogative to hunt them, and the elite of the court could only participate at his invitation. The qamargah was a Timurid form of hunting, and it may be significant that Akbar chose to follow this ancestral model just before the major campaign against Ranthambhor. In the painting, the emperor’s pre-eminence is emphasised not only by his central place in the composition but also by emblems of royalty such as his turban plume and jewels, and the wrapped weapons carried by servants. A second figure, not identified in the text, must also be a royal personage, as his turban plume indicates.
The artist Mukund was included by Abu'l Fazl in the historian’s list of the greatest painters of the age; his junior colleague, Manohar, became one of the most important figures in the royal ketabkhana, or 'House of Books', under Jahangir.
The Akbarnama was commissioned by the emperor as the official chronicle of his reign. It was written by Abu'l Fazl between 1590 and 1596. The paintings were being completed as he wrote his text. After Akbar's death in 1605, the manuscript remained in the library of his son, Jahangir (r. 1605-1627) and later that of Shah Jahan (r.1628-1658). The Victoria and Albert Museum purchased it in 1896 from Mrs Frances Clarke, the widow of Major-General John Clarke, who acquired it in India while serving as Commissioner of Oudh between 1858 and 1862.