Akbar clings to the elephant Hawa'i as it chases another elephant across a bridge of boats over the river Jumna outside Agra Fort. Left side of a double composition. (1590-95) Inscription: Tarh-e Basawan Amal-e Chatra Composition by Basawan Work [=painting] by Chatra This illustration to the Akbarnama (Book of Akbar) is the left side of a double-page composition (the right half is Museum no. IS.2:21-1896) designed by Basawan, whose name is given in the librarian's notations on the other page. The composition depicts a famous incident in the life of the Mughal emperor Akbar (r.1556-1605) outside the fort of Agra in north-west India in 1561. According to Akbar's court historian and biographer Abu'l Fazl, the royal elephant Hawai was reputed to be one of the strongest and most difficult of all those owned by the emperor, yet Akbar mounted him with ease and pitted him against an equally fierce elephant named Ran Bagha. The illustration shows Akbar, mounted on Hawai, pursuing Ran Bagha across a bridge of boats over the River Jumna, which collapses under the weight of the elephants. A number of Akbar's servants have jumped into the water to escape. The Akbarnama was commissioned by Akbar as the official chronicle of his reign. It was written in Persian by Abu'l Fazl between 1590 and 1596, and the V&A's partial copy of the manuscript is thought to have been illustrated between about 1592 and 1595. This is thought to be the earliest illustrated version of the text, and drew upon the expertise of some of the best royal artists of the time. Many of these are listed by Abu'l Fazl in the third volume of the text, the Ain-i Akbari, and some of these names appear in the V&A illustrations, written in red ink beneath the pictures, showing that this was a royal copy made for Akbar himself. After his death, the manuscript remained in the library of his son Jahangir, from whom it was inherited by Shah Jahan. The V&A purchased the manuscript in 1896 from Frances Clarke, the widow of Major General John Clarke, who bought it in India while serving as Commissioner of Oudh between 1858 and 1862. Copyright: V&A Images