Tiger Hunt of Ram Singh II, 1830 X 1840

Cleveland, Ohio, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Seventy-fifth anniversary gift of Dr. Norman Zaworski 1991.168

Image here via https://mapacademy.io/hunting-the-tiger-a-symbol-of-imperial-power/

When the first Mughal, Babur, was presented with a watermelon in his newly-conquered realm of Hindustan, he burst into tears. A native of central Asia, he had always loved the gardens and the fruit trees of Afghanistan.

Whatever his ecological feelings might have been, they did not stop this warlord of the early sixteenth century using his base in Kabul to subjugate northern India. The brave fighters of Rajistan resisted him fiercely, and it fell to his son, Humayun, to consolidate the conquest.

That conquest truly inaugurated a new chapter in the long history of the Indian sub-continent. Babur’s successors became known throughout the world as the Great Mughals. For over 200 years, they conquered more and more of India, at the same time introducing the Persian traditions and customs they had absorbed before the conquest.

The merging of these ideas with those of India gave rise to perhaps the greatest flowering of art and architecture the world has ever seen.

RJW F2430

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