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Lot Essay
No animal was more respected by the Mughal Emperor Akbar (r. 1556-1605) and his court than elephants. Once tamed, they would join the royal stables, and represent a considerable force on the battlefield. In a chapter in the Akbarnama of 1590-1602 dedicated to Akbar’s fondness of them, court chronicler Abu-l-Fazl was simply overwhelmed by the job of describing them in full detail, limiting himself instead to “a separate volume would be required to describe their ferocity, their revenge, and their wonders deeds” (H. Beveridge, The Akbarnama of Abu-l-Fazl, London, 1897-1939, vol. II, p.111).
Elephant hunting was a favourite sport of Akbar’s, who allegedly tamed more than one hundred wild (mast, lit. ‘drunk’) elephants since the age of fourteen (Beveridge, op.cit., pp.115-6). The elephant hunt thus became a favourite topic for his court painters who utilized their masterful ability to depict the minute details of these emotionally charged events. In this painting, we see an array of figures trying to tame four wild elephants, while a nobleman is issuing orders. A courtier aims for one with its trunk wrapped around a horse’s leg, thrusting its tusk into its hind quarter and throwing off another, panicking figure. Meanwhile, a brigade of elephant hunters are scattered throughout. Some are themselves mounted on tamed elephants with bells jangling around their necks, while others are climbing trees in order to surprise mount the wild animals and lay traps with ropes. Our painter has divided the composition in three horizontal fields, suggesting the sense of royal order and eventual victory despite the seeming chaos.
An almost identical painting is in the Royal Collection Trust, signed by Dhanraj and dated circa 1600 (RCIN 1005042). It is, however, less defined in its contours and certainly the work of another hand. Our painting differs most clearly in the addition of a clear protagonist, the nobleman with an aigrette in his turban.
Court painters may have been aware of a story that was to be included later in the Akbarnama. In the forest of Narwar in 1564, when Akbar’s army were on their way to defeat the last Shaybanid ruler of Bukhara, Abdullah Khan II (c. 1534-98) at Malwa, they decided to go for a hunt. While attempting to bind a seemingly subdued elephant to another one, “Adha, the son of Mulla Kitabdar, fell into the clutches of the elephant and was kneaded somewhat but managed to crawl away” (Beveridge, op.cit., p.333). A poignant reminder of the dangers involved in these hunts, it is tantalising to think that such stories could have served as inspiration for a painting such as ours, especially given that there exists a comparable painting of this exact moment from the so-called Chester Beatty Akbarnama dated 1602-3, now in the Cleveland Museum of Art (2013.309). That is also attributed to Dhanraj among others.
The elephant hunters in a similar, but lacquered, painting in the Brooklyn Museum (69.47) attributed to circa 1600-05 are dressed similarly to those in our painting, wearing protective helmets and also attempting to trap one of the wild elephants from above and below. That such motifs have been transferred to another media demonstrates the popularity of this scene in Akbar’s court, where hunts and elephant fights were amongst the power symbols depicted on the walls of the new palaces (Saiyid Athar Rizvi and Vincent John Flynn, Fathpur-Sikri, Bombay, 1975, pp.54-6).
While compositionally different to this group of paintings, the best known painting of an elephant hunt comes from a double-page composition from a partial copy of the first illustrated Akbarnama, in the Victoria & Albert Museum ( IS.2:21-1896 and IS.2:22-1896), produced for Akbar between 1590-5 while Abu-l-Fazl drafted and then revised the text. Pursuing the fierce court elephant Ran Bagha mounted on the equally fierce and unruly elephant, Hawa’i, Akbar’s courtiers react in a manner similar to several figures on our painting.
The artistic trope of the animal hunt itself possibly originated from earlier Persian and Sasanian prototypes (Robert Skelton, "Two Mughal Lion Hunts", Victoria and Albert Yearbook, London, pp.33-50). A rare example of a tiger hunt was sold in these Rooms, 28 October 2025, lot 77. An elephant bell contemporary with the ones in our painting is in the Iran-Zamin Collection (MW9; see Assadullah-Souren Melikian Chirvani, ‘The bronze and copper wares of Mughal Hindustan,’ Susan Stronge (ed.) The Great Mughals; Art, Architecture and Opulence, London, 2025, cat.63).
Elephant hunting was a favourite sport of Akbar’s, who allegedly tamed more than one hundred wild (mast, lit. ‘drunk’) elephants since the age of fourteen (Beveridge, op.cit., pp.115-6). The elephant hunt thus became a favourite topic for his court painters who utilized their masterful ability to depict the minute details of these emotionally charged events. In this painting, we see an array of figures trying to tame four wild elephants, while a nobleman is issuing orders. A courtier aims for one with its trunk wrapped around a horse’s leg, thrusting its tusk into its hind quarter and throwing off another, panicking figure. Meanwhile, a brigade of elephant hunters are scattered throughout. Some are themselves mounted on tamed elephants with bells jangling around their necks, while others are climbing trees in order to surprise mount the wild animals and lay traps with ropes. Our painter has divided the composition in three horizontal fields, suggesting the sense of royal order and eventual victory despite the seeming chaos.
An almost identical painting is in the Royal Collection Trust, signed by Dhanraj and dated circa 1600 (RCIN 1005042). It is, however, less defined in its contours and certainly the work of another hand. Our painting differs most clearly in the addition of a clear protagonist, the nobleman with an aigrette in his turban.
Court painters may have been aware of a story that was to be included later in the Akbarnama. In the forest of Narwar in 1564, when Akbar’s army were on their way to defeat the last Shaybanid ruler of Bukhara, Abdullah Khan II (c. 1534-98) at Malwa, they decided to go for a hunt. While attempting to bind a seemingly subdued elephant to another one, “Adha, the son of Mulla Kitabdar, fell into the clutches of the elephant and was kneaded somewhat but managed to crawl away” (Beveridge, op.cit., p.333). A poignant reminder of the dangers involved in these hunts, it is tantalising to think that such stories could have served as inspiration for a painting such as ours, especially given that there exists a comparable painting of this exact moment from the so-called Chester Beatty Akbarnama dated 1602-3, now in the Cleveland Museum of Art (2013.309). That is also attributed to Dhanraj among others.
The elephant hunters in a similar, but lacquered, painting in the Brooklyn Museum (69.47) attributed to circa 1600-05 are dressed similarly to those in our painting, wearing protective helmets and also attempting to trap one of the wild elephants from above and below. That such motifs have been transferred to another media demonstrates the popularity of this scene in Akbar’s court, where hunts and elephant fights were amongst the power symbols depicted on the walls of the new palaces (Saiyid Athar Rizvi and Vincent John Flynn, Fathpur-Sikri, Bombay, 1975, pp.54-6).
While compositionally different to this group of paintings, the best known painting of an elephant hunt comes from a double-page composition from a partial copy of the first illustrated Akbarnama, in the Victoria & Albert Museum ( IS.2:21-1896 and IS.2:22-1896), produced for Akbar between 1590-5 while Abu-l-Fazl drafted and then revised the text. Pursuing the fierce court elephant Ran Bagha mounted on the equally fierce and unruly elephant, Hawa’i, Akbar’s courtiers react in a manner similar to several figures on our painting.
The artistic trope of the animal hunt itself possibly originated from earlier Persian and Sasanian prototypes (Robert Skelton, "Two Mughal Lion Hunts", Victoria and Albert Yearbook, London, pp.33-50). A rare example of a tiger hunt was sold in these Rooms, 28 October 2025, lot 77. An elephant bell contemporary with the ones in our painting is in the Iran-Zamin Collection (MW9; see Assadullah-Souren Melikian Chirvani, ‘The bronze and copper wares of Mughal Hindustan,’ Susan Stronge (ed.) The Great Mughals; Art, Architecture and Opulence, London, 2025, cat.63).