Painted in Northern India within the royal Mughal imperial workshop during the late Akbar period (ca. 1590–1595). It was formally acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, where it is preserved under the permanent accession catalog number IS.2:58-1896.
This historical folio is an exceptional painting from the first illustrated manuscript of the Akbarnama (The Book of Akbar), produced in the Mughal imperial studio between 1590 and 1595. The composition illustrates a critical military event from June 1567, during which Emperor Akbar displays immense strategic courage by forcing his imperial army—and his famous royal war elephant, Udiya—to cross the dangerous, swollen currents of the Ganges River in rapid pursuit of the treacherous rebel leaders Khan Zaman and Ali Quli Khan.
The creation of this intricate folio represents the highly structured collaborative practices of the royal Mughal karkhana (workshop). The overall structural composition and initial outline sketch were drafted by the prominent court artist Jagan. However, the vital responsibility for the coloring, detailed painting, and final execution was handed over to the artist Nand Gwaliyari (frequently recorded in archival texts as Nand Gwaliori).
True to the specific focus on his background, Nand Gwaliyari originated from Gwalior in Central India. He utilized his specific assignment over the coloring phase to consciously subvert the rigid, highly stylized Persian conventions that dominated early Islamic manuscripts. Instead of rendering a flat or highly decorative river setting, Nand Gwaliyari introduced distinct indigenous Indian architectural sensibilities and earthy landscape attributes into the scene. His realistic execution of the jagged riverbank terrain, the masonry textures of the regional structural fort and camp elements visible in the background, and the organic mud shores are heavily reflective of local North and Central Indian topography. By integrating these specific regional architectural details and landscape realities into the imperial chronicle, Nand Gwaliyari successfully grounded this historic royal event in a tangible, unmistakably Indian context, making this folio a crucial example of early Mughal stylistic evolution
This work of art, a folio from the Akbarnama showing the Mughal Emperor Akbar crossing the River Ganges on his elephant Udiya, uses a hybrid artistic perspective that is typical of Mughal miniature painting. It is not reliant on any one structural system such as Western linear perspective but rather combines indigenous Indian, Persian and nascent European techniques to create a dynamic sense of depth. The bottom elephant is a standard vanguard mount with short tusks, painted face markings and a driver in white. The top elephant is the imperial Udiya, carrying Emperor Akbar in yellow, decorated with golden tusk-caps and royal red cloths.
