A feast for Babur hosted by his half-brother Jahangir Mirza in Ghazni in May 1505, from a Babur-nama (Memoirs of Babur) (c. 1589; outer margins added c. mid-1900s): Art, History and Details

A feast for Babur hosted by his half-brother Jahangir Mirza in Ghazni in May 1505, from a Babur-nama (Memoirs of Babur) (c. 1589; outer margins added c. mid-1900s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Basavana (Indian, active c. 1560–1600); Madhav Khurd (Indian, active late 1500s).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Twenty-one years before his conquest of Delhi, Babur took control of territories in Afghanistan, including the cities of Kabul and Ghazni. His half-brother, who controlled the region around Ghazni, ordered that a party be thrown in honor of Babur’s arrival from the north. Drinking parties and feasts in lavish movable tent settings, where gifts were exchanged, alliances forged, and relationships cemented, were as important to the building of the empire as the battles.

Object facts

• Title: A feast for Babur hosted by his half-brother Jahangir Mirza in Ghazni in May 1505, from a Babur-nama (Memoirs of Babur)
• Date: c. 1589; outer margins added c. mid-1900s
• Creator attribution: Basavana (Indian, active c. 1560–1600); Madhav Khurd (Indian, active late 1500s)
• Culture: India, Mughal, 16th century
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Page: 28 x 18.1 cm (11 x 7 1/8 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art - Mughal
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2013.300

A detail from the museum

A manager directs servers to bring spoons and lay out the buffet table.

Collection credit

Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.