Essay: Hunting Methods of the People of India

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Lower Caste Hindus

Hinduism, the main religion of India generally forbids the consumption of animal flesh, however many Shaivite Hindu sub-sects engage in hunting and eat meat, other than the meat of cows. There are lower caste Hindus such as the Mushahar tribe who set traps in the fields of land owners ridding them of the rodents that plague their lands. The rats then become food for the Musharars (Choudhary and Raha).

Mughal Emperors

The Mughal emperors of India kept domesticated Cheetahs which they used to hunt antelope, deer and gazelle. They also had royal kennels, mews for hunting birds. The Mughal Emporer Akbar, had over one thousand Cheetahs at one time. His son Jahangir managed to have Cheetahs bred in captivity (Rangarajan).

For the Mughals, a hunt was not only a sport and a source of food; it was also symbolic of the ruling class’s ability to conquer harmful wild beasts that threatened their subjects. Jahangir killed over 17000 animals during the first 12 years of his reign this included 86 lions and tigers (Rangarajan).

A Mughal hunting party would often contain a large number of soldiers. It was a highly ritualized activity supervised by an official known as the Mir Shikaran or Hunt Master. The troops would be used to drive the game into a suitable hunting ground and they would for a semi circle around the animal. The King would then choose the noblemen who would accompany him on the hunt. The hunt was often done on elephant back. A famous Mughal miniature painting depicts Jahangir on top of an elephant spearing a lion while a nobleman seated behind him lets loose an arrow towards it. The first Mughal Emporer, Babur recalls the hunt of three rhinoceros in a forest near Peshawar in his diary, the Baburnama (Rangarajan).

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