A fragmentary painting of an Elephant Combat, Rajasthan, Kotah, Mid 17th Century

Ink, opaque watercolour and gold on paper

Gods, Kings and Tigers: The Art of Kotah, Harvard University Art Museums, 1997

Of two fragments with losses, creasing and staining, as viewed.
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This is a tantalising fragment of what must have been a monumental and immensley powerful painting. Despite its fragmentary state, it conveys an intensity and energy that is the hallmark of several dynamic works involving elephants and hunts executed at Kotah in the mid to late 17th century, and that influenced later generations of artists and patrons at that court.

Among the related works are: Two Elephants Fighting, circa 1670 (see Beach 2011, fig.13; Topsfield and Beach 1991, no.14, p.48; Beach 1974, pl.LXXI, fig.75); Elephant Combat, mid-17th century (see Desai 1985, no.44; Mason 2001, no.65, pp.158-159); another Elephant Combat, late 17th century (Welch and Masteller 2004, no.38, pp.130-131); Ram Singh of Kota Pursuing a Rhinoceros, circa 1690 (see Welch 1997, fig.1; Welch 1985, p. 359, no. 242; Beach 1974, pls.LXVII-LXVIII, fig.71-72; Montgomery 1960, no.36); a slighty later drawing of the same scene (see Welch and Masteller 2004, no.47, pp.146-147); another version of Two Elephants Fighting, circa 1725 (Mittal 1989, no.29); a third, slightly different version of Two Elephants Fighting, circa 1675-1725 (Beach 1974, Pl.CXV, fig.126); and lot 29 in this sale.

All these works share not only a related style and subject matter, but a particular method of painting and drawing that emphatically conveys the power, drama and action of these hunts and combats, and the physical energy of the animals. The brilliant artists of these works have been identified by Welch as "The Master of the Elephants" and "The Kotah Master", with the present work and lot 29 being attributed to "The Kotah Master". He suggested that this artist was trained and began his career in the Deccan and came into the employ of Jagat Singh of Kotah in the late 17th century, as part of a general movement of artist from Deccani to Rajput patronage during the Mughal campaigns in the Deccan in the second half of the 17th century.

Ram Singh of Kota Pursuing a Rhinoceros (Welch 1985, p. 359, no. 242; Beach 1974, pls.LXVII-LXVIII, fig.71-72,; Montgomery 1960, no.36) is also attributed by Welch to the Kotah Master, whereas the earliest version of Two Elephants Fighting, in the Sir Howard Howard Hodgkin Collection (Topsfield and Beach 1991, p. 48, no. 14), is attributed to an artist dubbed "The Master of the Elephants", who Welch suggests was the senior of the two artists, and possibly guided his younger colleague, recently arrived from the Deccan, in adapting to the favoured style of Kotah, which had itself inherited a powerful stylistic influence from its parent school at Bundi, where wall-paintings of elephant scenes provide close comparisons to the works mentioned above.

Recent and current research by Milo Beach discusses the authorship of these and many other paintings and drawings of the 17th and early 18th century at Bundi and Kotah (Beach 2008, Beach 2011). He discusses the early development of painting at Bundi and the emergence of a distinct school at Kotah, and suggests new attributions for some works previously attributed by Welch to "The Master of the Elephants" and "The Kotah Master".

Elephant combats were described by the French physician François Bernier during his time in India from 1658 to 1669:
"A wall of earth is raised three or four feet wide and five or six [feet] high. The two ponderous beasts meet one another face to face on the opposite sides of the wall... The riders animate the elephants either by soothing words, or by chiding them as cowards, and urge them on with their heels, until the poor creatures approach the wall and are brought to the attack. The shock is tremendous and it appears surprising that they should even survive the dreadful wounds and blows inflicted with their teeth, their heads, and their trunks. There are frequent pauses during the fight; it is supended and renewed, and the mud wall being at length thrown down, the stronger more courageous elephant passes on and attacks his opponent and, putting him to flight, pursues and fastens on him with such obstinacy that the animals can be separated only by means of cherkys, or fireworks, which are made to explode between them." (Desai 1985, p. 53).