Antique
Wool
NO. 37444
India, c. 1900-1919
9'10" X 11'11" (3.00 m x 3.63 m)
$72,000
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Antique Agra Rug with Animal Pictorials in Multicolor Hunting Narrative - Rug & Kilim
Made with hand-knotted wool, this 10x12 antique Agra rug represents an iconic, museum-quality addition to Rug & Kilim’s Antique Collection—a transcendent, breathtaking exemplar of Indian narrative weaving, originating circa 1900-1919. It presents a staggeringly detailed, polychromatic Shikargah or a hunting narrative, capturing the visceral, heartbreaking poetry of a Mughal-style royal hunt against contrasting ivory and deep burgundy grounds.
On the Design:
Just as Emperor Shah Jahan envisioned the Taj Mahal as an earthly mirror of paradise sculpted from white marble, Mughal court artisans viewed the carpet loom as a sacred medium for rendering the imperial cosmos in wool. In Abul Fazl’s 16th-century court chronicle, the Ain-i-Akbari, royal hunting is described not merely as sport, but as an allegorical act of statecraft where the sovereign establishes divine order over the chaos of the natural world—a philosophy immortalized in the legendary Shikargah or hunting scene genre of court painting and weaving. Curated with the obsessive perfectionism of an imperial miniaturist, this antique Agra masterpiece translates that royal ethos into a surface so finely knotted it feels like a breath of morning mist over the Nile river, yet holds the narrative weight of a museum-grade manuscript. The sunlit, ivory-ground field is anchored by towering "Trees of Life" or Darakht-e-Hayat, whose sprawling canopies serve as a spatial framework directly mirroring famous Mughal court folios, such as those found in the Akbarnama. High within these leafy branches, the human theater begins: shikaris or royal hunters clad in indigo tunics are sheltered among the foliage, their bows drawn taut as they unleash arrows upon the wild realm below.
Beneath this celestial canopy, the drama of survival plays out with an extraordinary level of verisimilitude. Majestic slate-gray hathi or elephants draped in vibrant crimson saddlecloths execute tactical combat maneuvers, using their trunks to ward off fiercely leaping bagh or tigers in a display of strength. In an arresting stroke of unflinching realism rarely achieved in antique textile art, the weaver lays bare the tragic heartbeat of the jungle: a tiger stands triumphantly over a fallen hiran or deer, where the exquisite, harrowing detail of crimson blood is visibly seen weeping from the fatal bite at the creature's neck. At the base of the central trunk, a pride of golden babbar sher or lion, the supreme symbol of imperial power, also definitive as Sultanat in Mughal iconography. It surveys the surrounding combat with kingly majesty. Encircling this open clearing is a primary border in a deep, intoxicating burgundy, functioning as the jungle or untamed wilderness where silhouetted elephants, leaping tendua or leopards, and fleeing white stags are deeply entangled within classical lotus palmettes and sweeping vinery. Framed by celestial sky-blue guard borders and awash in masterfully aged vegetable dyes of rose, ochre, and chocolate brown, this carpet stands as a monumental triumph of early twentieth-century Agra revival weaving—an immortal manuscript in wool that bridges Mughal courtly ideals with transcendent, poetic storytelling.
Condition:
This antique Agra rug enjoys good condition for its age and origin.
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