This painting depicts Tarkhan Divana, the custodian of the fort at Ajmer in north-west India, making a treaty with Husain Quli Khan, the Mughal general, in 1562. Tarkhan Divana is shown humbly bowing in submission to the Mughal general, who is seated in a temporary tent, which is beautifully detailed. The librarian's inscriptions in red beneath the painting note that the composition is by La'l, with the painting filled in by Naman, and the faces done by Mukund.
The painting is from the Akbarnama (Book of Akbar), commissioned by the Mughal emperor Akbar (r.1556–1605) as the official chronicle of his reign. The Akbarnama 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.