Home > Digitized Walters Manuscripts

This document is a tranformation of a TEI P5 XML manuscript description incorporating images. If you have trouble reading special or non-Latin characters on this page, please make sure you have appropriate Unicode fonts installed and an up-to-date web browser.

Walters Ms. W.873, Single leaf of an elephant in must during a hunt

Browse images (Browse images in a new window) | TEI in XML format

Shelf mark

W.873


Manuscript

Single leaf of an elephant in must during a hunt


Text title
An elephant in must during a hunt

Abstract

This single leaf depicts the Mughal emperor Akbar (r. 963-1014 AH / 1556–1605 CE), who continues to ride and control his elephant, which has gone into heat (must). The elephant is shown attacking a horse, whose rider has fallen beneath his steed. In turn, the horse bites the elephant’s trunk. The event documents the courage and determination of the emperor, who is identified in an inscription at the top of the page in black nastaʿlīq script as Muḥammad Jalāl al-Dīn Akbar Pādshāh. This inscription was likely written by a later viewer. The border, in yellow, black, blue, and orange, probably dates to the thirteenth century AH / nineteenth CE.


Date

Early 11th century AH / 17th CE


Origin

India


Form

Leaf


Genre

Historical


Language:

The primary language in this manuscript is Persian.


Extent

Foliation: Not applicable


Dimensions

16.0 cm wide by 23.5 cm high


Layout
  1. Image: 10.8 cm wide by 16.4 cm high

Contents:
fols. W.873a - W.873b:
  1. Title: An elephant in must during a hunt
  2. Text note: Inscription in Persian
  3. Hand note: Written in black nastaʿlīq script
  4. Decoration note: Border in yellow, black, blue, and orange, probably dating to the thirteenth century AH / nineteenth CE

Decoration:

fol. W.873a:

  1. W.873, fol. W.873a
  2. Title: An elephant in must during a hunt
  3. Form: Drawing

fol. W.873b:

  1. W.873, fol. W.873b
  2. Title: An elephant in must during a hunt (back)
  3. Form: Back

Acquisition

Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters bequest


Bibliography

Pal, Pratapaditya, and Hiram W. Woodward. Desire and Devotion: Art from India, Nepal, and Tibet in the John and Berthe Ford Collection. (London: Phillip Wilson, 2001), 150-1.


Contributors

Principal cataloger: Gacek, Adam

Catalogers: Landau, Amy; Smith, Sita

Editor: Bockrath, Diane

Conservators: Jewell, Stephanie; Quandt, Abigail

Contributors: Barrera, Christina; Emery, Doug; Herbert, Lynley; Noel, William; Simpson, Shreve; Tabritha, Ariel; Toth, Michael B.; Valle, Chiara


Publisher

The Walters Art Museum


License

Licensed for use under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Access Rights, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/legalcode. It is requested that copies of any published articles based on the information in this data set be sent to the curator of manuscripts, The Walters Art Museum, 600 North Charles Street, Baltimore MD 21201.