Hunter shooting a leopard, 1570-75, from the Anwar-i Suhaili


The Anwar-i Suhaili is a Persian language version of the Panchatantra, an ancient Indian collection of animal fables. A hunter has shot a leopard, which had just killed a dog, which itself had just slain a fox. This chain of carnage is observed by a pink lynx on the right, who reflects that "The actions of each, since they were based on injury to others, proved, by way of retaliation, injurious to himself." The moral is, do no evil to others.
Source: Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford


Mughal Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers