Ahu Siah: How the blackbuck features in Mughal hunts

From stockades, decoys and cheetahs to an entire monument, the Timurid princes of South Asia paid tribute to a worthy quarry
The Hiran Minar complex in Sheikhupura close Lahore, Pakistan
The Hiran Minar complex in Sheikhupura close Lahore, PakistaniStock
Published on

Blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra) is an antelope native to India. In a piece for Down To Earth (DTE), veteran conservationist Asad Rahmani called the species the ‘epitome of grace’ and the ‘finest representative of arid and semi-arid short grass plains that were once abundant in undivided Punjab, Haryana, parts of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and down south up to Tamil Nadu’.

Its speed and grace made the blackbuck a quarry worthy enough to be hunted by royalty in the subcontinent including Rajput princes and Mughal emperors. The latter deserve special mention here since the blackbuck also feature in the transition of Mughal hunting traditions from those developed in their Central Asian homeland to their new home, India.

Also Read
Blackbuck: The epitome of grace
The Hiran Minar complex in Sheikhupura close Lahore, Pakistan

The first six rulers of the Timurid Mughal dynasty of South Asia hunted blackbuck, as descriptions in the official histories of these ‘Great Mughals’ (called so due to the magnitude of their achievements, compared to later rulers of the dynasty) tell us.

The method preferred most for hunting by the Mughals initially was the qamargah or the stockade hunt. As prominent Mughal art historian, Ebba Koch says in her 1998 paper Dara-Shikoh Shooting Nilgais Hunt and Landscape in Mughal Painting, this technique was in the Mongol tradition of Chingiz Khan, from who Babur claimed descent.

The qamargah was all about spectacle as this type of hunt was supposed to emphasise the ruler as warrior. “The imperial battue was a vast affair in which thousands of beaters herded the game into a large circle that was often enclosed by nets or fences to form a stockade. In this temporary game park the animals were then brought down systematically,” writes Koch.

She adds that typically antelope including blackbuck (ahu siah in Persian), Indian gazelle (chinkara, Gazella benetti), and blue bull (nilgai, Boselaphus tragocamelus) were hunted using this technique.

In 1567, the emperor Akbar organised a huge qamargah. Shaha Parpia, a scholar on the Mughal hunt, notes in her paper The imperial Mughal hunt: A pursuit of knowledge that the hunt took place in the Salt Range of the Lahore suba of the Mughal Empire (today’s Punjab province in Pakistan).

The hunt required “over 15,000 animals to be driven in from the neighbouring hills for over a month by about 5000 beaters into a circle 16 kilometres in circumference. Akbar hunted in the steadily decreasing ring for five days”, writes Parpia.

She also notes that the account of the hunt gives an idea of the wildlife of the Salt Range. Parpia cites author Divyabhanusinh who “identified markhors (wild goats), Punjab urial (wild sheep), blackbucks, jackals, antelopes, civets, foxes, and hyenas”.

The Mughals also hunted blackbuck using Asiatic cheetah, which became extinct in the Republic of India in 1952. One of the most famous instances comes from the life of Akbar.

Abul Fazal, his court historian, describes a spectacle during a hunt in Sanganer near Jaipur, where “Akbar was pursuing a herd of blackbuck with a tame, favoured cheetah named Chitr Najan”.

“…, a large buck leapt into the air ‘to a height of a spear and a half’ to cross a ravine which was 25 yards (22.8 metres) wide. Chitr Najan cleared the ravine and hunted it down,” Parpia writes. This scene was captured in a painting by La’l and Kēsav, both artists at the Mughal court in a famous painting.

Also Read
'Jahangir's scientific contributions have been ignored by mainstream academia'
The Hiran Minar complex in Sheikhupura close Lahore, Pakistan

Blackbuck, as mentioned above, also featured in the changes in the Mughal hunt.

Koch describes the rationale behind the change in Mughal hunting techniques. “As time passed and the Mughals started to shed the nomadic traditions of their first hour and became more sedentary and courtly, they were increasingly drawn to these less exerting hunting practices, which guaranteed success with little physical effort from the main hunter,” she writes.

One of these new techniques was ‘decoy hunting’. It was not new, as per Koch, having already been mentioned as Dipamrgaja in the Manasollasa, the 12th-century Sanskrit manual believed to have been written by the Deccani king Somesvara III Chalukya.

‘Decoy hunting’ was used by the Mughals in Shikar-i ahu ba ahu (literally hunting antelope with antelope).

Also Read
The Bishnoi, blackbuck and chinkara: What exactly were Guru Jambheshwar’s principles regarding Thar wildlife?
The Hiran Minar complex in Sheikhupura close Lahore, Pakistan

One portal describes the hunt like this: “To hunt blackbuck, Jahangir sometimes used a trained, castrated ram and a ewe, as decoys to lure in wild antelope. The hunters would crawl as close as possible, then jump up and surprise the lusty pack, giving the king the chance to shoot one fleeing.”

As per Koch, this type of hunt was used by those princes who “were not entitled to stage a great qamargah or a lion hunt. This form of the hunt also attracted imperial interest as a less dangerous technique in which firearms then still unreliable and slow to handle—could be used to greater advantage”.

But perhaps the best tribute to the blackbuck by the Mughals that still exists today is the Hiran Minar in Sheikhupura near Lahore in Punjab, Pakistan. Jahangir built it as a tomb and resting place for Mansraj, his favourite pet blackbuck, who was accidentally killed in 1607. The monument is 30-metre high and made of brick.

As Koch writes: “Jahangir raised a hunting palace, called Hiran Minar, at Shaikhupura near Lahore (completed in 1620) as a memorial to his favorite antelope (ahu) Hansraj,” “which was without equal in fights with tame antelopes and in hunting wild ones.””

Related Stories

No stories found.
Down To Earth
www.downtoearth.org.in