The Moghul Emperors of India As Naturalists and Sportsmen, Part I
Journ. Bombay Nat. Hi.t. Soc. r . , , " • ~ ..,; - y- - J •• "J( • • ~ • THE EMPEROR JEHANGIR SHOOTS A LARGE LION. (Memoirs, voL ii, p. 284). Painted c. A.D. 1623, Indian Museum, Calcutta, No. 316, size 12i" X 7!". By kind permission of the P"blishC1's, ' Indian Paillting under the Mogl",ls, , by Percy B,'own. JOURNAL OF THE Bombay Natural History Society FEBRUARY, 1927 VOL. XXXI No. 4 THE MOGHUL EMPERORS OF INDIA AS NATURALISTS AND SPORTtlMEN BY SALIM A. ALl PART I (With 3 plates) The title of this paper is somewhat misleading, hence it may be advisable at the outset to indicate its scope. The term 'Moghul Emperors' here represents only the Big tlix, from Babnr the illustrious founder of the dynasty to Aurangzebe, with whose death the great empire launched on a career of steady and rapid decline. The' Naturalists' of the title also needs qualification. It ~tands here only in respect of animal life, though it is well known that the Moghuls were great lovers of Nature in all its other aspects as well. The wonderful gardens' built by them all over Northern India remain to this day to bear testimony to theIr love for flowers and trees, and the genuine delight which Babur and his great-grandson Jehangir felt in the natural objects they saw around them cannot help impressing anyone who wades through the inimitable memoirs left us by these two sovereigns. To avoid repitition of lengthy titles of works which I have most frequently quoted, I propose to use the following abbreviations :_ Babur Memoirs of ZaMruddin Mohonztd Babur, translated from the Chagatai Turki by John Leyden, M.D.
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