Painting

The construction work is directed by an aristocratic figure seated within a pavilion whose rich interior includes a fine carpet and tiled walls. To the left is a water wheel (saqiya), the device borrowed from Iranian tradition and widely used to draw water from deep wells.

The elephants flanking the gateway are clearly real animals and may have been used to help lift heavy materials, but two elephants were also carved into the stone in high relief on the Hathiya Pol (‘Elephant gate’) at Fathpur, as Father Monserrate recorded when he arrived at the city with the first Jesuit mission from Goa in 1580. [Akbarnama, English translation: Beveridge, vol. II, pp. 530-1; vol. III, pp. 157-160]

The composition (tarh) of this painting is by Tulsi, the "work" ('amal) of applying the colours is by Bandi, and the faces of the most important personages are by Madhav Khord , as the inscription in red in the lower margin specifies.

The Akbarnama was commissioned by the emperor Akbar as the official chronicle of his reign. It was written by his court historian and biographer Abu'l Fazl between 1590 and 1596 and is thought to have been illustrated between about 1592 and 1594 by at least 49 different artists from Akbar's studio. After Akbar's death in 1605, the manuscript remained in the library of his son, Jahangir (r. 1605-1627) and later Shah Jahan (r.1628-1658). The Victoria and Albert Museum purchased it in 1896 from Mrs Frances Clarke, the widow of Major-General John Clarke, who bought it in India while serving as Commissioner of Oudh between 1858 and 1862.