Open Access
American Research Journal of History and Culture
ISSN (Online): 2379-2914
DOI: 10.46568/arjhc
Setting the Game of Ferocity and Innocence: Hunts of Jahangir
Assistant Professor, History of Medieval India at Centre of Advanced Study, Faculty of Social sciences
University of Delhi, India
Dr. Manisha Choudhary. “Setting the Game of Ferocity and Innocence: Hunts of Jahangir”. American
Research Journal of History and Culture ; V4, I1; pp: 1-18
Abstract
The details in the Jahangirnama are much a query in nature and the desires of emperor to show the
crack of dawn for the herculean task of knowledge creation which was undertaken by the intriguing and truth
searching mind of him. Much of the record created by Jahangir is an effort to assert for his own royal status, affirm
the warrior instinct and tocast self as a protector and spiritual elements. The noting around the flora and fauna
and his hunting expeditions form a major section of the text and are immense to understand the personality
of the Mughal emperor-Jahangir. Interestingly, the super seceding numbers of the hunts have been missed and
the partial collection of the flora and fauna have been highlighted enough to project Jahangir as ‘Naturalist’.
This paper is an effort to understand the hunts of Jahangir and his approach towards components of nature.
Much of his recordings were surrounded with ingredients of strangeness and rarity and were engagement of
a self acclaimed ‘truth searching mind’. The absenteeism from military expeditions gave him enough space for
undertaking the kills and making leisure records. The curiosity around birds and animals has been expanded
much beyond the capacity by outreaching and outsourcing the task of painting, on to the painters.It is an effort
to re-look the observations of the emperor to understand his perspective towards the components of nature.
