Mughal Rugs: Mughal Fighting Elephant Fragment

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Textile Museum Washington, DC

Mughal Fighting Elephant Fragment
Lahore India, circa 1630 (+ or - 15 years)
Previously in the Sarre Collection now in the collection of the Textile Museum Washington, DC

While a detailed structural analysis is not currently available to me I am fortunate that Charles Grant Ellis examined the carpet and noted in print 1. that this carpet was made with high ply count cotton warps. Carpets With High Ply Count Cotton Warps.

In "Flowers Underfoot"2 Walker confirms my assumption about structure. Structural Analysis of the Mughal Fighting Elephant Fragment.

Fortuitously we have two strong indicators prominent in this fragment. The first is the single pearl earrings which are dateable and also the distinctive turbans

The trappings on the elephants are different than I usually see in sixteenth and seventeenth century Mughal elephants. It maybe that the fighting trappings are simplified

Detail from Mughal Fighting Elephant Fragment

The pearl earrings we see here and the turban of the Deccan type date this man's fashion statement to roughly 1615 to 1645.2.

Detail from Portrait of Jadun Ray Deccanni 3.

Circa 1622, signed Hashim (Mir Hashim), Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Detail from "Prince Selim as a Young Man" 4.

Circa 1635 signed Bichitr. From the Minto Album in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Detail from Mughal Fighting Elephant Fragment

Here again we see the pearl earrings with a turban that was fashionable slightly later than the Deccan turban we saw on the other rider.

Mughal Fighting Elephant Fragment

Fighting Elephant Fresco Fatehpur Sikri 5.

Circa 1580 by an unidentified artist on a Mughal building project in Fatehpur Sikri. Martin attributed the Mughal Fighting Elephants to 1580 on the basis of this fresco. Please note that aside from elephants which are fighting there is little to connect the two images.

Mughal Fighting Elephant Fragment

Fighting Elephants Picture Wall Lahore Fort 6.

This panel in the picture wall of the Lahore Fort dates to circa 1632. Please note the similarities in the harness and trappings.

Martin attributed this carpet fragment to India about 1580 on the basis of the Fighting Elephants Fresco in Fatehpur Sikri. Others have suggested later dates including as late as the eighteenth century. Having seen this piece at the Textile Museum in 1997 I see nothing that I feel justifies a later attribution. However I also see nothing to justify an attribution to the sixteenth century. This is a cartoon rug and if there was such a striking design available in the eighteenth century I would expect to see more of these but this is the only one I can find. It also seems unlikely that someone designing the cartoon would get such an appropriate match on the earrings with the turbans. If someone were doing a later forgery and took such great pains to get it right why did they not use turbans from the sixteenth century and make a more valuable forgery. When we examine the panel in the Lahore Fort there is greater detail in the carpet fragment I suggest that the carpet and the panels draw from the same source rather than one being a copy of the other. The colors, the floral forms, the elephants, the turbans, the earrings, and the way the whole piece comes together causes me to think Lahore India, circa 1630 (+ or - 15 years) is an appropriate attribution.

See Mughal Elephants In Battle c.1595-1600

1. F. R. Martin, "A History Of Oriental Carpets Before 1800." Oriental Rug Review Vol. VI, No. 3 June 1986 Page 17/65a.

2. Walker, Daniel. Flowers Underfoot. (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997) p. 164.

3. The approximation of age was accomplished by scanning my collection of images for pearl ear rings and then scanning on turban type. Then cross-referencing the two and using that group to estimate an approximate time at which one would be most likely to see these things used together.

4. Okada, Amina. Indian Miniatures of the Mughal Court. Translated by Deke Dusinberre, (New York, Harry N. Abrahms, Inc. Publishers, 1992). Plate 174.

5. Okada, Amina. Indian Miniatures of the Mughal Court. Translated by Deke Dusinberre, (New York, Harry N. Abrahms, Inc. Publishers, 1992). Plate 201.

6. Wheeler, Mortimer et al. Splendors of the East. (London: Spring Books, 1970), p. 148.

7. Wheeler, Mortimer et al. Splendors of the East. (London: Spring Books, 1970), p. 84 to 88.

Authors Note:

Outside of coming home to my family my next favorite place to return to is the Textile Museum, While space and time does not allow mentioning all the people at the TM who make it so very special to me I do have to mention that this project has been helped immeasurably by Sumru Krody who was kind enough to send me information on this and other pieces from the Textile Museums collection.

Carpets With High Ply Count Cotton Warps, The Widener Mughal Animal Carpet

For Further Reading:

Guide to Rugs & Books

La Miniature En Orient

Southwest Asia Time Line

Thanks and best wishes,

J. Barry O'Connell Jr.