british museum behind the scenes tour

Virtual Tour of the British Museum's Highlights

See its highlights and hear their tales as told by a former museum guide

Select date and time

• Tuesday Jan 2025 28 11:00 AM

Refund Policy

About this event, see the highlights of one of the greatest museums in the world and hear its amazing stories from a former british museum tour guide to bring it all alive., we choose our favourite objects from across the globe, to understand ancient cultures., please note: this tour may be cancelled if there are not enough people. you will be given a full refund., featured in this virtual tour of the highlights of the british museum:.

• the Rosetta stone, and how it was discovered and hieroglyphics deciphered
• the Egyptian gallery and the bust of Rameses II
• the Parthenon sculptures (the ‘Elgin Marbles”)
• the Egyptian mummies and what happens if you unwrap one?
• the Benin bronzes
• the great Roman silver treasure dug up by a Suffolk farmer
• How the oldest script in the world, cuneiform, was translated
• The Mayan sculptures
• Aztec jewellery fit for a king

The tour guide:

Loona Hazarika is a tour guide with 16 years experience and has advised and appeared on TV documentaries such as BBC TV’s The ‘Hairy Builder’, BBC1's The Repair Shop and SKY Atlantic’s ‘Urban Secrets’.

He has guided hundreds of people, from school children to celebrities, around his birthplace, London and was trained as an official tour guide for the British Museum where he gave tours for 5 years. He is a regular speaker for several online platforms and has a Masters degree from the University of Cambridge.

Tour details:

1 hour 15 minutes, via zoom app or link: we’ll email you the password on the morning of the tour, how to join the virtual tour:, book your tickets via the above link., we’ll email you full details of the zoom meeting link, password and meeting id on the morning of the tour., five minutes before start time, click on the link we send you or log in via the zoom app and then sit back and enjoy the tour., please put your microphone on mute, but you will be able to unmute and ask questions at the end of every stop., for more of our tours please visit our website let's discover london ., see below for my reviews:.

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Behind the Scenes at the British Museum

EXTERIOR PHOTO: ©EYE35/ALAMY

W ORKERS AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM joke that the institution is like the CIA: nobody ever leaves. Why would they? It’s the United Kingdom’s number one attraction, with 8 million objects in its collection ranging from a 2 million-year-old chopping tool to African textiles created in the last decade. More than 5.5 million visitors streamed through its doors last year, but they only saw a fraction of the building and none of the hard work and planning that go into running one world’s most venerable museums. Dr. John H. Taylor is one of the elect charged with overseeing this cultural smorgasbord. As assistant keeper of the Ancient Egypt and Sudan collection, Taylor works with one of the world’s greatest Egyptology collections, and not just in terms of artifacts. Down the hall from his office there is a 22,000-volume Egyptology library, one of the largest in the world. If he wants to examine the artifacts, Taylor passes through a series of locked doors into a storage room filled with 50 mummies. Another room has hundreds of papyri preserved between sheets of glass. Taylor’s focus in recent months has been an exhibition on mummies to open in May 2014. The exhibition will look at how modern, noninvasive procedures such as CT scans allow researchers to peer inside mummies without unwrapping them. The detailed scans map the body and its wrappings, revealing burial goods, the techniques used for mummification, and physical problems and diseases the individual suffered when alive. An exhibition is born in a series of meetings during which each department proposes ideas. Factors such as cost, popularity and other museums’ plans are taken into account. Once a theme is settled upon, the planning starts. For this exhibition, Taylor and his colleagues made a list of mummies froma range of periods and geographic origins. They favored mummies that hadn’t already been scanned, in order to add to the museum’s vast storehouse of data. When he talked to British Heritage , Taylor had just returned from taking four mummies through the CT scan at a London hospital. An exhibition like this is a research boon to the department and spins off numerous publications. Before it can be displayed, each artifact has to be cleared by the Conservation Committee. In some cases, objects are so brittle that even the vibration of the visitors’ feet walking by the display case can cause damage. Light can also damage ancient pigments and inks. One artifact that will probably not make it into the exhibition is a 3,000-year-old Egyptian wig made of human hair—the only one of its kind in the UK. It’s almost too delicate to be moved; it has shed a couple of its locks just sitting in the storeroom. When it was brought into the museum 100 years ago, Taylor relates with a wince, someone nailed it to a wooden stand. Now conservators are debating if it’s possible to remove the nails without damaging the wig. “Curators have to do a range of jobs,” says Dr. Richard Hobbs, curator of the Romano-British collections. In addition to overseeing one of the museum’s more popular display areas, he’s expected to publish both academic and popular-level studies of the collections. This diversity came to the fore in 2013 when he curated an exhibition of the Mildenhall Great Dish, an elegant 4th-century Roman silver platter placed in Room 3, an exhibition space dedicated to a single object. Hobbs wanted a display that showed visitors how the dish was used, and came up with the idea of putting a replica couch around the dish and encouraging visitors to recline on it. A video display on the base around the dish showed people’s arms reaching for food. Hobbs also gave a popular gallery talk explaining the role of feasting and silverware in Roman society. Room 3’s Objects in Focus series changes every three months and is sponsored by Asahi Shimbun , a Japanese newspaper. Hobbs said they are a “very hands-off sponsor,” making no demands as to how their money is spent. Out of gratitude, however, the museum picks a Japanese object once a year. Studies of the crowd flow show that 1,000 daily visitors to Room 3 spend an average of three minutes there, so the displays have to be short and to the point. Text has to be concise and include illustrations related to the object. Grabbing the public’s attention is always a concern. Dr. Andrew Shapland, curator of the Greek Bronze Age, jokes, “My gallery is on the way to the café, so I hope I get people that way.” In a more serious vein, Shapland continues, “There is an element of serendipity. People happen upon objects and are drawn to them.” You can see this in the way people walk through the museum, first making a beeline to the objects that interest them most, then wandering almost at random, their eyes resting on various objects until one pulls them in.

While there is the enduring controversy over the Elgin Marbles and a few other pieces, Shapland and Hobbs say that there have been few complaints over some of the racier Greek and Roman art. As Hobbs explains, “We always have to think about an object’s impact, but that has to be proportional to the public reaction.” During the Pompeii exhibition in 2013, curators felt obliged to put a warning sign at the entrance to one of the rooms containing images that were shocking even in the Internet Age, but the museum didn’t receive any complaints. A Room 3 exhibition of the Warren Cup, a 1st century AD Roman silver cup showing homoerotic scenes, tallied up a grand total of one complaint. One of Shapland’s current projects involves a group of artifacts that have been in the museum for a century. The British Salonika Force collection was gathered by soldiers stationed in Greece during World War I. The 3,000 objects were only partially documented at the time, and Shapland has to match up objects with scattered notes and references in soldiers’ letters. One of Shapland’s volunteers spent a year cataloging some 2,000 potsherds, while he himself has written several articles on the collection. Much of this information has made it into the museum’s online database, with a description of every artifact in the collection, including accession date, who donated or found it, plus a photo. “Now we are packaging the collection to make it easier for the public to navigate. This is the second phase of the operation,” Shapland said.

A NOTHER WAY that staff interacts with the public is by answering questions. Unusually for such an institution, part of the British Museum’s mission statement is to answer every question posed to it, whether some detailed query by an overseas academic or a basic question from the public. Taylor’s department is deluged with questions, and each curator spends four to five weeks a year dealing with them. The Egyptologists often have to clear up misperceptions about mummies’ curses and pyramid power. Sometimes people will bring in “genuine ancient Egyptian artifacts” they bought overseas, and Taylor will have to give them the bad news that they bought a fake, although they should be consoled that they didn’t break any international antiquities laws by taking a real artifact out of Egypt. Taylor also recalls an interesting letter from an engineer who came up with a brilliant and plausible explanation of how the Egyptians built the pyramids; the only problem was that there was no evidence that the Egyptians did it that way. While one might think this sucks valuable time away from their work, Taylor likes fielding questions because it helps gauge what the public is interested in and forces the staff to keep well-grounded in the basics of their field. While curators are generally seen only at talks, the museum’s volunteers are at the front line of interacting with the public. One of their most popular jobs is at the Hands-On displays, where volunteers pass around genuine ancient artifacts for people to examine. In her second month of volunteering, Anne Richmond-Patrick is already showing off Anglo-Saxon beads and Merovingian belt buckles, having studied a ream of material so she can answer potential questions. It’s not easy to become a volunteer. The museum doesn’t take applications except during periodic recruitment drives, and it does not accept all applicants. Volunteers also have to go through a rigorous training process. While a background in history or archaeology isn’t required, there is a steep learning curve that includes lectures on everything from archaeology to storytelling. Richmond-Patrick fits in her volunteering and training amid her job at a bank. She has volunteered for many organizations, ranging from her church to the RSPCA, and is excited that her new work allows her to revisit her love of history, in which she has a degree. “It’s a real privilege to be allowed to work here,” she says. It is a sentiment echoed by everyone at the British Museum, staff or volunteer.

Related: January 2014

BHT newsletter

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Each season, the Detroit Historical Society hosts special Behind the Scenes tours of historic locations and other venues throughout metro Detroit. Let our expert guides show you these places in ways you’ve never experienced before!

These weekly tours normally take place on Saturdays, but some do take place on weekdays. On average, tours last from 90 minutes to two hours. To ensure the safety of our guests, tours require you to meet at the tour location.

Because reservations are required and many tours are only able to accommodate a very limited number of guests, we recommend that you make your plans well in advance - and  become a member  and create an online account to get the earliest access to tickets. Tour information is released quarterly and posted on the 1st of January, March, June and September for each upcoming season. Tickets will become available to members about two weeks later (please see postings for exact on-sale dates).

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Current Behind The Scenes Tours:

Book Tower Tour #2

June 14 2024 | 10:00am to 11:00am.

SOLD OUT! Two tour dates! The wait is over. . . Book Tower has been restored to its former glory and is officially open. The...

Devries & Henry the Hatter

June 16 2024 | 10:00am to 11:00am.

On sale now! Visit two of Detroit’s oldest businesses, located in Historic Eastern Market. Devries & Co. has been in the same...

The Schvitz Tour #1

June 22 2024 | 10:00am to 10:30am.

SOLD OUT! Two tour dates! Open to guests since 1930, The Schvitz is Detroit’s original urban health club and the only historic...

The Schvitz Tour #2

June 29 2024 | 10:00am to 10:30am.

Masonic Temple

July 9 2024 | 11:00am to 12:30pm.

SOLD OUT! Explore Detroit’s Masonic Temple, the largest building of its kind in the world. Completed in 1926, its unique...

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July 20 2024 | 10:00am to 12:00pm.

On sale now! Learn how two growers in the City Commons local collective tend a variety of vegetables, flowers, perennial...

Hecker House

July 26 2024 | 10:00am to 11:00am.

SOLD OUT! Architect Louis Kamper’s first major commission in 1889, this French chateau-like structure at the corner of...

The Whitney

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SOLD OUT! Built by lumber baron David Whitney Jr., Detroit’s richest man and one of Michigan’s wealthiest citizens, this 25,...

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SOLD OUT! Architect Frank Lloyd Wright coined the term “Usonian” to describe the style of the Dorothy G. Turkel House,...

Just Added! Bayview Yacht Club

August 10 2024 | 10:00am to 4:00pm.

On sale now! In conjunction with our newest exhibition at the Dossin Great Lakes Museum, join us to explore Bayview Yacht Club. ...

Society to Society

September 13 2024 | 10:00am to 11:30am.

On sale now! Visit the other historical societies of metro Detroit in a new series, beginning at the Dearborn Historical...

Dequindre Cut

September 14 2024 | 10:00am to 11:30am.

On sale now! Formerly a Grand Trunk Railroad line, this urban recreational path opened to the public in May of 2009 and is...

Frederick Stearns House Historic Inn

September 18 2024 | 10:00am to 11:00am.

SOLD OUT! Tour the historic Frederick Stearns house, a tudor-style structure on E. Jefferson Avenue that is now a fully...

Book Tower Tour #1

September 20 2024 | 10:00am to 11:00am.

Belle Isle's Indigenous History Walking Tour

September 21 2024 | 10:00am to 11:30am.

On sale now! Join us on an important journey through Wanabeezee, known to most as Belle Isle, and explore the Indigenous...

September 27 2024 | 10:00am to 11:00am

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Behind the Scenes Tour: Spirit Collection

Get up close

A 45-minute behind-the-scenes tour of the Museum's unique spirit collection.

Daily tours are currently available until the end of July.

Adult: £25, Child: £25,  Member : £20

Go behind the scenes with our knowledgeable science educators for a look at the Museum's fascinating zoology collection preserved in spirit.

As we explore some of the Darwin Centre's 27 kilometres of shelves, you'll encounter numerous treasures hidden among the 22 million animal specimens housed here.

You'll meet Archie, our 8.62-metre-long giant squid, view specimens collected by Charles Darwin himself and learn more about our cutting-edge research.

Find out about the security measures we have in place .

Important information

The tour is suitable for adults and children aged eight and over. This age limit is in place because the tour content, specimens covered and chemical smells in the tank room are not suitable for younger children. Children under 16 years must be accompanied by an adult.

Due to the chemical smells in the tank room, the tours may also not be suitable for pregnant visitors.

Bags are not allowed on the tour, but free use of the cloakroom is included in your ticket.

We welcome guide dogs at the Museum. There are grass areas for them outside and water is available on request. You can leave your guide dog with the attendants at either of our cloakrooms if you wish.

Guide dogs are not allowed on our Spirit Collection Tours. If you need help with access talk to staff at the information desks or call us on +44 (0)207 942 5000.

If you'll be using a wheelchair on this tour, please let us know in advance so can we make appropriate arrangements.

Due to the behind-the-scenes nature of the tour there will be some spaces which will require you to be in close proximity to other visitors and the guide for short time periods.

Please arrive at the   Turbinaria coral bay in Hintze Hall   a few minutes before your tour is scheduled to begin.

For private tour requests email us at  [email protected] .

Got a question? Call us on +44 (0)20 7942 5000, Monday to Friday, 9.00-17.00 or email us .

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Spirit collection tours meet by the  Turbinaria  coral bay in Hintze Hall.

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Welcome to the Huge History Lesson

We’re asking schools to help students discover how objects can open up our world’s histories.

Last year we challenged schools around the UK to choose a museum object, carry out a historical enquiry and share their findings with us in their own special way. Thank you for all of your wonderful submissions, which included videos, a comic book, and even a WhatsApp conversation!

The winning entry came from Coopers Edge School in Gloucester, who chose a Typhoon fighter plane from their local museum and created a video to show what they learned. We met the students as they told us about their investigation into this object at school and at the Jet Age Museum. They also extended their historical enquiry with a visit to the British Museum which included a behind-the-scenes tour.

We hope you enjoy our short film about the winning school as well as the original entries from Coopers Edge and the runners up, who were:

• St Nicholas House School, Norfolk
• Lavender Pond Home Education Group, London
• Chulmleigh Community College, Devon

(Films are best viewed in Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome )

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• What was on

Behind-the-scenes tour

This event has now passed. For details of our current events and exhibitions, visit the What's On page.

Our special curator-led behind-the-scenes tour offered an exclusive glimpse of the museum.

First stop was the museum's Workshop where participants could witness restoration work and engineering marvels first-hand, as well as experiencing the sights and smells of the prep bay where locomotives are conditioned for mainline service.

The tour continued in the art store and archives, providing an encounter with fascinating collection objects with unique stories to tell, including the original drawing of Trevithick’s first locomotive and the British Rail Flying Saucer.

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Visiting Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion?

You must join the virtual exhibition queue when you arrive. If capacity has been reached for the day, the queue will close early.

Perspectives Art Explained

Elephant soul, indian brush.

Take a closer look at the Asian elephant through the eyes of Indian court painters

Navina Najat Haidar

An astute young visitor to Indian Skies: The Howard Hodgkin Collection of Indian Court Painting counted 123 elephants across the exhibition. [1]   Some are easy to find, such as the majestic portrayals of bejeweled pachyderms of the Mughal court standing in profile against a plain or colored ground (fig. 1). Others are concealed in the hilly forests of Rajasthan, running through the trees and bushes as they participate in a royal hunt (fig. 2). Almost invisible are grisaille elephants bathing in a pool in The Elephant Hunt  (1730–40), their splashing gray bodies merging with the fluid lines of moving water (fig. 3).

Fig. 1: Elephant and Rider , Mughal, ca. 1640. On loan from the Howard Hodgkin Indian Collection Trust

Fig. 2:   Shri Brijnathji and Maharao Durjan Sal hunting  Kota, Rajasthan, 1730–40. On loan from the Howard Hodgkin Indian Collection Trust. Fig. 3:  The Elephant Hunt , Rajput, attributed to Niju, Kota, Rajasthan, 1730–40. Image © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

The elephant is central to Indian culture, and Indian artists have for centuries captured the elephant in painting, sculpture, textiles, and rock-cut reliefs. The relationship between man and elephant in India developed in many contexts, from the jungles and the wild to the temple and the court, where elephants were trained and used in the army, hunts, rituals, and ceremonies. The beloved elephant god Ganesh appears in daily life, from a twelfth-century Chola bronze image , which would have been carried in religious processions, to the annual Ganapati festival where images of the deity are immersed in water . 

The British artist Howard Hodgkin (1932–2017) had a marked passion for images of Indian elephants, which stand out as a distinct group within his larger collection of Indian court painting. His assemblage of 122 works dating from the late sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries, from the Mughal, Deccan, and Rajput courts, contains several important elephant images, which he avidly pursued alongside his own creative output as a painter and printmaker. [2]  But why elephants? Hodgkin clearly recognized the importance of the elephant to Indian culture, noting that the depiction of elephants was taken as seriously as that of kings. [3] However there may also have been a certain emotional and psychological dimension to Hodgkin’s relationship to the subject. According to his friend Terence McInerney, on some deep level Hodgkin may have thought of himself as an old stalwart elephant, suggesting that his elephant collection may have been a key to his own inner self. [4]

Many elephant studies, especially those originating in the Mughal tradition, assume the character of portraits, sensitively capturing the personalities of individual pachyderms standing tall in stately profile. Specific elephants can be traced in chronicles and histories and are often identifiable by the presence of their names inscribed between their legs, in a cartouche, or on the reverse of the folio, such as in the image of Firoz Jang, “Victorious in War” (fig. 4), or another of Khushi Khan, “Lord of Happiness”.

Fig. 4:  An Elephant and Keeper , Mughal, ca. 1650–60. Fig. 5:  The Elephant Khushi Khan , Mughal, ca. 1650

Studies of elephants from the Rajput courts, by comparison, frequently show them in dramatic action, as in elephant or lion fights prepared as cartoons for wall paintings  (fig. 6). Deccani elephants add a unique flavor to the formula—they tend to be shown in a more poetic and fantastical manner, with voluminously rounded bodies and displays of tender emotion, such as is seen in an elephant family locked in embrace at the bottom of the Composite Album Page with Standing Figure of Jahangir (fig. 7). Of course there are many crossovers of style between these traditions and courtly workshops.

Fig. 6:   A Royal Lion Hunt , Kota or Bundi, Rajasthan, ca. 1640. Image © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

Fig. 7:  Elephant Family (detail from Composite Album Page with Standing Figure of Jahangir ), Deccan, 17th century

When, in the late sixteenth century, emperor Akbar (r. 1556–1605) of the imperial Mughal dynasty decreed that an album of lifelike portraits of his courtiers be created based on their exact appearances, he set into motion a tradition of naturalistic representation in Indian art that extended beyond human subjects. Under Mughal patronage, individual horses, elephants, and wildlife were individually studied and recorded, as were flowers and insects. So accurate and sensitive are these depictions that they have been noted for their scientific qualities.

Fig. 8 : Elephant with Mahout , Mughal, ca. 1660. Fig. 9:  African Bush Elephant , attributed to Govardhan, Mughal, 17th century. Private Collection

The Indian elephant ( Elephas maximus indicus ) is one of three extant recognized subspecies of the Asian elephant. The species is smaller than the African elephant, with a convex back and a distinctive crown-like forehead as the highest point of the body (fig. 8). Compare this with a rare image of an African bush elephant ( Loxodonta africana ) attributed to the seventeenth-century artist Govardhan and now in a private collection (fig. 9). [5] We see this creature has a lower and flatter brow, larger ears, and longer trunk. Indeed, keen observation and recording was the intention behind some of this artistic production, as the Mughals—pre-Enlightenment figures in their own right—advanced the understanding of the natural world through the medium of art. Elephants were also recognized for their character, as mentioned by Akbar’s court chronicler Abu’l Fazl: “This wonderful animal is in bulk and strength like a mountain; and in courage and ferocity like a lion.” [6]  Painted studies of these creatures captured not only their physical features but conveyed a sense of their inner life and personalities.

Fig. 10:   A Prince Riding an Elephant in Procession , Mughal, ca. 1570

In a fragmentary cloth painting, a delightful baby elephant marches along in a Mughal parade, valiantly keeping in step with the senior pachyderms (fig. 10). While the little elephant wears just a simple rope with bells, the painting depicts the garniture of the other royal elephants. This includes varieties of ropes ( kilawah , dor ), ornamental and practical chains ( gudauti ), strings of bells ( chaurasi ), decorated headdresses ( ranpiyala ), back cushions ( gadelah ), dyed Tibetan yak-tail finials ( quta ), tusk rings ( bangri ), and goads ( ankus ) held by mahouts or riders, among other items. [7]

Fig. 11:   Young Elephant Eating , Mughal, ca. 1650

Another young elephant portrayed in a study from the Shah Jahan (r. 1628–58) period is shown eating sweet leaves (fig. 11). His dark color, high head, and yellow eye suggest he may be a mand elephant, a type of elephant classified by Abu’l Fazl as being “wild and ungovernable”. [8] Set against a plain yellow ground with few landscape details, his forefeet are held with links suggesting he has not yet been tamed. A pitkacch , or double chain with hanging bell, is fastened around his middle, and he has just deposited three pieces of dung as he sets about his meal.

Fig. 12 :  The Elephant Ganesh Gaj ,  Mughal, ca. 1660–70. On loan from the Howard Hodgkin Indian Collection Trust

Fig. 13: Sultan Ibrahim ‘Adil Shah II in Procession , Deccan, attributed to ‘Ali Riza, mid-17th century

Indian artists often rendered elephants in the nimqalam (“half pen”) drawing technique, which utilized monochromatic tones, fine stippling, and highlights of color or gold. This grisaille-like technique was especially suited to elephant studies, effectively capturing the gray hues, voluminousness, mass, wrinkly skin, and fine hairs of the creatures. The elephant Ganesh Gaj   (circa 1660–70)—a treasure of the Mughal stables—is one such example (fig. 12). He stands massively against a shrunken background of hills, probably meant to signify the northern Deccan landscape with a miniaturized camel train passing through, also rendered in nimqalam . The restricted palette and fine stipples highlight his large form, mottled skin, and heavy lower lip. A Deccani painting shows the ruler of Bijapur in procession in a parade of elephants, fantastical and balloon-like in their rounded bodies and legs, all rendered with extremely fine nimqalam stippling (fig. 13). 

Fig. 14: Elephant Trampling a Horse , Deccan, mid-17th century

Fig. 15: Marbled Elephant , Deccan, 1630–50

In a Deccan nimqalam drawing, Elephant Trampling a Horse (mid-seventeenth century), the background is heightened in a more decorative vein with dramatic marbling effect and gold to highlight the action. In this technique ( abri or ebru ), colors are applied to the surface of a painting through immersing the page in a bath of floating pigments, resulting in striated and rounded forms like stone marble (fig. 14). A talented artist has reversed this effect in another Deccan elephant image of the same period, Marbled Elephant  (1630–50), where the gray tones of marbling in the elephant’s body make a witty pun on nimqalam by referencing a grisaille-like effect but in another technique, while other parts of the composition are marbled in different colors (fig. 15).

Fig. 16: Elephant Fight , Kota, Rajasthan, attributed to the Kota Master, ca. 1655–60. Image © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

In Rajput drawings, particularly at Kota and Bundi, the tinted nimqalam effect is often intensified in inky drawings on paper to create powerful images of elephants in action. Two fighting elephants collide in a drawing attributed to the Kota Master in circa 1655–60 (fig. 16). Mughal naturalism is banished in favor of stylized Rajput drama, with intensely modeled areas, passionately curling trunks, and bumping faces as the mahouts attempt to contain the animals. An attendant on the ground tries to control the scene with the help of a charkha , a fire-cracker-like device at the end of a tall bamboo pole. This design, transferred to the walls of a Rajput fortress, could have been rendered in brilliant color as part of a larger scheme of interior décor with scenes of valor and myth.

Fig. 17:  Playful Elephant Bathing in Dust , Kota, Rajasthan, ca. 1700. Image © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. Fig. 18:  Elephant Eating Foliage , Mankot, Punjab Hills, ca. 1700

Fig. 19:   Enraged Elephant during Training , Kota, Rajasthan, ca. 1690. Image © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

It is in the images of the daily life of the elephant, however, that we most closely sense the feeling of the Indian artist for his beloved subject matter. Here a great relationship is revealed—one between the magnificent animal and its devoted observer who notes its habits, personality, traits, and features with close attention. We learn about the elephants’ predilection for rolling in dust through a drawing of circa 1700, where the elephant is shown on the ground in a contrapposto pose (fig. 17). In a drawing of the same period, another elephant enjoys a leafy lunch straight from the tree, almost smiling with delight as he pulls up a bunch of leaves toward himself (fig. 18). In Enraged Elephant during Training (circa 1690), an elephant in a state of mast (or heat, as described in the inscription) is convincingly captured in a fierce mode with trunk extended and eyes glaring, a time in their life cycle when the creatures secrete a certain substance from their temples and are known to behave in wild ways (fig. 19).

Fig. 20:  Sultan Muhammad 'Adil Shah and Ikhlas Khan Riding an Elephant , Deccan, Haidar 'Ali, Ibrahim Khan, ca. 1645

In ceremony and symbolism, elephants were often decorated with auspicious or flattering jewels and makeup—their faces and trunks brilliantly colored with vermilion or other tones for special temple rituals or court occasions. A Bijapur painting of the mid-seventeenth century by the artists Haidar ‘Ali and Ibrahim Khan depicts Sultan Muhammad ‘Adil Shah and his African prime minister Ikhlas Khan atop a magnificent dark elephant, adorned with garlands of jasmine and roses, yak tail earring, tusk ornaments, and numerous jewels and bells (fig. 20).

Fig. 21:   Rao Bhao Singh Riding an Elephant  (detail), Bundi, Rajasthan, ca. 1675

Raja Bhao Singh’s large bull elephant depicted in Bundi in circa 1675 has a strong pinkish mottling which contrasts with the darker coloration in other parts (fig. 21). His natural rosy “makeup” is highlighted with delicate touches of red along the temple and trunk, and he wears tiger claw amulets, as he transports his royal rider across a Mughal-inspired green ground.

Fig. 22: ‘Alam Guman, the chief elephant of Rana Amar Singh, and other elephants , Mughal, ca. 1614. Fig. 23:  Portrait of the Elephant ‘Alam Guman , Mughal, attributed to Bichitr,  ca. 1640

Just as human lives can be traced across time in Mughal portraits, so too can elephants’. In 1614 when Akbar’s son and successor Jahangir (r. 1605–27) succeeded in subduing the state of Mewar, he captured Rana Amar Singh’s elephant ‘Alam Guman. [9] ‘Alam Guman is depicted in a painting on cloth, now in the National Museum, Delhi, where he is identified in an inscription by name and shown almost bare from trappings with three young calves (fig. 22). [10] Some years later, ‘Alam Guman was portrayed again in Portrait of the Elephant 'Alam Guman   (circa 1640), now a senior elephant in the stables of Shah Jahan, the next Mughal emperor (fig. 23). This work in The Met collection is attributed to the artist Bichitr and depicts the elephant dressed with fine fittings, his name boldly inscribed in a cartouche which also mentions his monetary worth—a princely one hundred thousand rupees ( yek lakh rupaiyya ). 

Fig. 24:   Maharaja Raj Singh and his Elephants , Mughal, ca. 1710–15. Image © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

Indian elephants commanded a retinue of courtly servants themselves. Mughal historical sources list the titles of the human functionaries around the elephant stables—the faujdar , or superintendent over every troop ( halqah ) of elephants, and lesser ranks such as the mahawat (“ mahout ”) who sits on its neck, a bhoi who sits on its rear, and a met’h  who brings the elephant its fodder. Artists captured the role and function of the elephant attendants who are often shown alongside the elephant, displaying a considerable range of specialized skills. For example, an early-eighteenth-century drawing from Sawar depicting Maharaja Raj Singh in an elephant procession shows thirteen elephants marching together in rank and file, controlled by riders or runners, some of whom also perform ceremonial duties such as carrying flags or royal trappings (fig. 24).

Fig. 25:  Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah II Riding His Prized Elephant, Atash Khan , with the elephant Chanchal , Mughal, attributed to Farrukh Beg, ca. 1600. David Collection, Copenhagen

Perhaps one of the greatest love stories of India is that between two elephants, Atash Khan (Lord of Fire) and Chanchal (Tinkling Anklets), who were in the stables of Sultan Ibrahim ‘Adil Shah II of Bijapur (r. 1580–1627) in the Deccan. In a painting by the artist Farrukh Husain, Atash Khan, the bull elephant, bears the sultan on his back while Chanchal, his mate, appears as a demure and shadowy presence by his side. She was presented to the Mughal emperor Akbar in 1604, embarking with the ambassador Asad Beg on a long journey northward to the Mughal court (fig. 25). Distraught at being separated from her partner, she could only be comforted with gallons of Portuguese wine along the way. [11]

Through the remarkable images collected by Hodgkin and the larger world of Indian elephant pictures, artists have illuminated the joy, inner life and dignity of nature’s great creation and the central place of the elephant in Indian art and culture.

[1]  Thanks go to Margot Rochell, 7, for this important observation.

[2]  The majority of his collection has been recently acquired by The Met and is currently on display along with loans from the Hodgkin Trust.

[3]  Hodgkin, H, ‘Notes on the Collection’ in Filippi, GG , Indian Miniatures and Paintings from the 16th to the 19th century, The Collectino of Howard Hodgkin , Verona, 1997. 

[4]  Terence McInerney in conversation with HH; personal communication. 

[5]  Enbom, D,  Indian Miniatures ,  The Ehrenfeld Collection , New York (American Federation of the Arts), 1985, pp. 60–61, no. 20.

[6]  Abu’l Fazl ‘Allami,  Ain-i Akbari , Blochmann H (tr.), Calcutta, 1873, vol. 1, p. 117.

[7]  Abu’l Fazl ‘Allami,  Ain-i Akbari , Blochmann H (tr.), Calcutta, 1873, vol. 1, p. 120.

[8]  Abu’l Fazl ‘Allami,  Ain-i Akbari , Blochmann H (tr.), Calcutta, 1873, vol. 1, p. 118

[9]  The Jahangirnama,  Memoirs of Jahangir, Emperor of India , Thackston, W (tr.), NY, 1999, p. 157: “At this auspicious time the elephant Alam-Guman, who was worthy of being a royal elephant, was paraded past my view along with the Rana's seventeen other male and female elephants my son Baba Khurram had sent, giving much joy and happiness to our supporters.”

[10] Das, AK, ‘The Elephant in Mughal Painting’ in Flora and Fauna in Mughal Art, Verma, SP (ed), Marg, vol. 50, no. 3, March 1999, p. 46, no. 10.  

[11] Haidar, N, and Sardar, M,  Sultans of Deccan India, 1500–1700; Opulence and Fantasy , New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2015, pp. 100–101, cat. 31.

About the contributors

Curator, Department of Islamic Art

Indian Skies: The Howard Hodgkin Collection of Indian Court Painting

The Disrobing of Draupadi

Birding at The Met

Behind the Scenes

For Families

From the Archives

In Circulation

Notes from Museum Leadership

Religion and Spirituality

Social Change

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