Tribal People Hunting Black Buck at Night

On a night graced by a full moon, three Bhil hunters, two women and one man, approach a herd of entranced deer. The painting displays one of the many forms of hunting described by Abul Fazl, the court historian of Mughal emperor Akbar and author of the Âîn-i Akbarî. The ghantabhera hunt employed trackers from the Bhil tribe who carried shields or baskets with the concave sides away from them. A lamp in the concavity of the shield or basket created a reflected beam of light while also concealing the bearer. In this scene, a female tracker also rings a small bell. The sound of the bell and the light of the lamps attracts the animals toward the hunters; as Abul Fazl describes, "Sometimes hunters will charm them with a song, and when the deer approach will rise up and cruelly slay them." This painting comes from the provincial Mughal school at Faizabad, a center known for producing many versions of this subject. A red sandstone fortress rises in the distance, drawing attention to the division between the ordered urban space of the Mughal empire and the rugged wilderness of the tribal people who lived at its fringes. (label text from Sport of Kings exhibition January 2005).