A Royal Lion Hunt
This remarkably animated and vibrant hunt scene is a tour de force of Bundi-style draftsmanship. While Rajput artists drew inspiration from Mughal studies of elephants, they went far beyond these largely static depictions to create one of the most vibrant genres in seventeenth-century Rajput painting: the royal hunt on elephant. This quintessentially Rajput theme celebrates the virtues of valor and skill on the battlefield as expressed through the royal hunt. Such large-scale ink and wash drawings were produced as templates for the murals that decorated the interiors of Rajput palaces. The elephant with a princely rider seen here is directly echoed in a mural preserved in the badal mahal (royal apartments) of Bundi Palace.
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