Ghatotkacha and three demons in his company chase Bhagadatta, from Bhishma-parva (volume six) of a Razm-nama (Book of Wars) adapted from the Sanskrit Mahabharata and translated into Persian by Mir Ghi

Ghatotkacha and three demons in his company chase Bhagadatta, from Bhishma-parva (volume six) of a Razm-nama (Book of Wars) adapted from the Sanskrit Mahabharata and translated into Persian by Mir Ghiyath al-Din Ali Qazvini, known as Naqib Khan (Persian, d. 1614) (1616–17) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Fazl (Indian, active early 1600s).

The work and its context

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

The red demons riding elephants were magically generated in multiples by Ghatotkacha, the son of one of the protagonists of Book of Wars. Though created by magic, the elephant-riding demons still caused problems for their adversaries and forced them to retreat. This scene took place on the fourth of 18 days of heated battle. The Mughal emperor Akbar (reigned 1556–1605) commissioned a translation of the ancient Sanskrit epic Mahabharata into the Mughal court language of Persian and distributed copies to members of his court. He believed that the epic provided insight into how to rule the people of India. The chief minister to both Akbar and his successor, Jahangir, commissioned his own lavishly illustrated copy, from which this page has come.

Object facts

• Title: Ghatotkacha and three demons in his company chase Bhagadatta, from Bhishma-parva (volume six) of a Razm-nama (Book of Wars) adapted from the Sanskrit Mahabharata and translated into Persian by Mir Ghiyath al-Din Ali Qazvini, known as Naqib Khan (Persian, d. 1614)
• Date: 1616–17
• Creator attribution: Fazl (Indian, active early 1600s)
• Culture: Mughal India, court of Jahangir (reigned 1605–27); made for Abd al-Rahim the Khan Khanan
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Page: 36.7 x 24 cm (14 7/16 x 9 7/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art - Mughal
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2013.321

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

Further reading listed by the museum

• Catalogue of Highly Important Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures: The Property of the Kevorkian Foundation, Comprising Persian, Arabic and Turkish Calligraphy, Including "Qur'an" Leaves of the 11th and 12th Century, and Examples of "Nasta'liq" and "Naskhi" Calligraphy ... Which Will Be Sold by Auction by Sotheby and Co. ..., Monday, 7th December, 1970. London: Sotheby, 1970.
• Mace, Sonya Rhie, Mohsen Ashtiany, Catherine Glynn, Pedro Moura Carvalho, Marcus Fraser, and Ruby Lal. Mughal Paintings: Art and Stories: the Cleveland Museum of Art. London: D Giles Limited, 2016.

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.