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Akbar Watching a Fight Between Elephants near Malwa
Mahesh - Enlarge image
Akbar Watching a Fight Between Elephants near Malwa
- Object:
Painting
- Place of origin:
India (possibly, made)
Pakistan (possibly, made) - Date:
1590-1595 (painted)
- Artist/Maker:
Mahesh (artist)
Kesav Khord (artist) - Materials and Techniques:
Opaque watercolour and gold on paper
- Museum number:
IS.2:40-1896
- Gallery location:
South Asia, room 41, case C
This illustration to the Akbarnama (Book of Akbar) depicts the Mughal emperor Akbar (r.1556–1605) watching a fight between elephants near Malwa in north central India in 1564. It is by the Mughal court artists Mohesh and Kesav Khord.
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.
