Birds And Animals In Indian Art - By: Victor Epand

Jahangir, who was the fourth Mughal emperor, was a lover of beauty. That is the reason why artifacts, which are created by hands observe the nature as a the work of god.

His memoirs, which are commonly known as Tuzuk-I-Jahangiri or Jahangirnama, are as much an album of his aesthetic experiences as a chronicle of his reign. With his keen sensibility, these experiences were a permanent source of joy for him where both nature and beauty were preserved through the brush of his artists.

Jahangir was also a naturalist of the first order, with a strong curiosity for facts. He maintained a rich menagerie and an aviary, manned by expert officials and a team of workers under his personal supervision. Regular records were kept of each individual specimen, as also such information as he desired to acquire. His investigations have been found to be of immense scientific value. The historian Henry Beveridge opined that Jahangir would been a happier man had he been the head of a museum of natural history.

The zebra, which is also known a equus grevyi, was first brought into India at Jahangir's court in 1621. Jahangir's keen eye observed the intriguing correspondence between the pattern of stripes of the zebra and the tiger. The former is striped exactly like the black and yellow tiger, except that this is black and white. Since some doubted that the black stripes had been painted onto its body, which is why an inquiry was instantly ordered. After the inquiry, it became certain that the lines were created by the creator of the world.

Jahangir's most valuable contribution to the knowledge of zoology was a portrait of the Mauritian bird, which was the dodo or raphus cucullatus. An important link in the evolution of ducks, which are flightless, are primitive birds that had become extinct by the end of the seventeenth century. This was thanks to the active gastronomic interest that has been taken into it by visiting European soldiers. Modern scholars wishing to know its features had to depend for a long time on a not very accurate drawing by the Flemish artist, Ronald Savery. This drawing was made at Amsterdam between 1626 and 1628, while the Mughal painting, which was attributed to the great Mughal artist Mansur, lay in oblivion.

Dr. A. Ivanov of St Petersburg discovered this drawing in the collection of the Institute of Oriental studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. His paper created a sensation at the XII International Ornithological Congress at Helsinki in 1958, because this painting was found to be the most correct representation of the dodo. It was correctly made from a live specimen, which seems to have been presented to Jahangir by a foreign visitor. Professor Erwin Stresemann has dated this miniature to the last years of the emperor's life when ill health had stopped his pen, and deprived the world of an eyewitness account of an exceedingly curious bird by one of the most interesting figures in Indian history and a naturalist par excellence.

About the Author

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for Krishna art, religious gifts from India, and Hare Krishna books. Please visit these sites for art from India, religious gifts from India, and Hare Krishna books.

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