Rao Ram Singh I’s Elephant Gone Amok (c. 1700): Art, History and Details

Rao Ram Singh I’s Elephant Gone Amok (c. 1700) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

A royal elephant, named Nahan, according to the inscription, is attempting to free itself by breaking the chain. His ears are flexed forward, and his great mass overwhelms the five men trying to control the elephant with spears and firecrackers tied to sticks. The artist used gold in the elephant’s eye to emphasize the intensity of expression.

Object facts

• Title: Rao Ram Singh I’s Elephant Gone Amok
• Date: c. 1700
• Culture: Northwestern India, Rajasthan, Rajput Kingdom of Kota
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Page: 20 x 41.6 cm (7 7/8 x 16 3/8 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2018.177

A detail from the museum

The tusks are ornamented with gold rings, and the sharp tips have been trimmed.

Collection credit

Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund

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.