Link as old as time

In 1619 Jahangir writes: “As they had at this time preserved the hunting place of the pargana of Palam [where the Delhi airport is now located], according to order, it was represented that a great number of antelope had collected there ...

I started to hunt with cheetahs. At the end of the day, during the hunt, much hail fell of the size of apples, and made the air very cold. On this day three antelope were caught. On Sunday, the 2nd, I hunted 46 antelope, and on Monday, the 3rd, 24 antelope were caught with cheetahs. My son Shah Jahan killed two antelope with his gun. On Tuesday, the 4th, five antelope were caught. On Wednesday, the 5th, 27 antelope were caught ... I employed myself within the limits of Palam until Thursday, the 13th, in hunting with cheetahs. In the space of twelve days 426 antelope were caught, and I returned to Delhi. I had heard, when in attendance on my father, that it is impossible for an antelope that has escaped from the grasp of a cheetah to live, although it has not been injured by its claws. In this hunt I, in order to ascertain the fact, released several antelopes of handsome appearance and strong bodies, before they had received any wounds from the teeth or claws [of cheetahs] and ordered them to be kept in my presence, and that they should be taken greatest care of. For a whole day and night they remained at ease in their natural conditions: on the second day a change was observed, and they threw about their legs as if they were drunk without any reason, and fell down and rose up. However much tiryaq-i-faruqi (preparation of opium) and other suitable medicines were administered to them, they had no effect and when one watch had passed in this condition, they died.”

This passage is significant in recording the experiment Jahangir made to determine whether an antelope released from the jaws of a cheetah would die in spite of a lack of serious injury. It leads one to conclude that the trauma of being rounded up in a stockade and being attacked by predatory cheetahs resulted in shock that proved fatal. This shows also that the Mughal huntsmen had perfected the art of relieving the cheetah of its prey promptly in order to perform halal so that the venison would be permissible food under Islamic law. The cheetah would be lured from its prey, which was still alive, with the offer of food in a long-handled wooden ladle. Jahangir mentions that the antelope did not receive any wounds, but does not explain how this was achieved.

Shah Jahan continued the tradition of hunting vigorously. One painting shows him slaying a lion in the presence of his father near Agra in 1611 while another shows him in the company of his sons Dara Shikoh, Shah Shuja and Aurangzeb, shooting a lion as a lioness snarls at one of the elephants. Two of her cubs are also seen in the painting, which probably records an event of 1632. The Shah Jahan Nama of Inayat Khan records several instances of hunting blackbuck, but usually with a gun. Though cheetahs are not mentioned specifically, they would certainly have been used. In a miniature of the Padshahnama showing the royal entourage on the move from Lahore to Agra in the 8th regnal year, a cheetah too is featured, being carried on a bullock-cart.

The French traveller, Francois Bernier, who arrived in the fateful first year of Aurangzeb’s rebellion in 1658 and remained in India till 1668, chronicled the “History of the late Rebellion of the Great Mogol”, leaving a first-hand description of Aurangzeb out hunting. A significant section of it relates to coursing with cheetahs:

“In the neighbourhoods of Agra and Delhi, along the course of the Gemna [Yamuna], reaching to the mountains and even on both sides of the road leading to Lahore, there is a large quantity of uncultivated land, covered either with copswood or with grasses six-feet high. All this land is guarded with the utmost vigilance, and excepting partridges, quails and hares, which the natives catch with nets, no person, be he who he may, is permitted to disturb the game, which is consequently very abundant...

I shall, in the first place, describe the manner in which they [Emperor Aurangzeb and his “Omrahs” or nobles] chase antelopes with tame leopards [obviously cheetahs] ... there are in the Indies large numbers of antelopes, very much resembling our fawns in shape; that they move generally in herds; and that every herd, which is never composed of more than five or six, is followed by a male, who is easily distinguished by his colour. When one of these little troops is discovered, the first step is to have it seen by the leopard who is kept chained on a small car. The sagacious and cunning animal does not, as might be expected, run at once towards the antelopes, but winds about, hides himself, crouches, and in this cautious manner approaches them unperceived, so as to give himself a fair chance of catching them with those five or six bounds, which the leopard is noted for making with incredible agility. If successful, he gluts himself with their blood, heart and liver! but if he miss his prey, as frequently happens, he makes no other effort, but stands perfectly still. It would indeed be useless to contend with these animals in a fair race, for they run much more fleetly and much longer than the leopard.”

With permission from Marg Publications

This was first published in the 1-15 June, 2023 edition of Down To Earth