Posted:
NUR-JAHAN SHOOTS FOUR TIGERS
when two watches and three gharis had passed I went
out to hunt them with my ladies. When the tigers came
in sight Nur-Jahan Begam submitted that if I would
order her she herself would kill the tigers with her gun.
I said, " Let it be so." She shot two tigers with one
shot each and knocked over the two others with four
shots. In the twinkling of an eye she deprived of life
the bodies of these four tigers. Until now such shooting
was never seen, that from the top of an elephant and
inside of a howdah ('amdri) six shots should be made and
not one miss, so that the four beasts found no opportunity
to spring or move. 1 As a reward for this good shooting
I gave her a pair of bracelets 2 (pahunchi) of diamonds
worth 100,000 rupees and scattered 1,000 ashrafis (over
her).
1 Note by Sayyid Alimad. They say that a poet recited this
impromptu couplet "
"Though Nur-Jahan be in form a woman,
In the ranks of men' she's a tiger-slayer.''
The point of this couplet is that before Nur-Jahan entered Jahangir's
harem she was the wife of Shir-afgan, the tiger-slayer. The line may
also read " In battle she is a man-smiter and a tiger- slayer."
from Tuzuk-e-Jahangiri or Jahangirnama is the autobiography of Mughal Emperor Nur-ud-din Muhammad Jahangir
Portrait of Nur Jahan, wife of Mughal Emperor Jahangir.* Anglo-Indian or "Company School" at Delhi. Gouache and gold on ivory. With original bevel-edged glass cover. Circa 1840. 9.5 x 7.1cm idealised types
when two watches and three gharis had passed I went
out to hunt them with my ladies. When the tigers came
in sight Nur-Jahan Begam submitted that if I would
order her she herself would kill the tigers with her gun.
I said, " Let it be so." She shot two tigers with one
shot each and knocked over the two others with four
shots. In the twinkling of an eye she deprived of life
the bodies of these four tigers. Until now such shooting
was never seen, that from the top of an elephant and
inside of a howdah ('amdri) six shots should be made and
not one miss, so that the four beasts found no opportunity
to spring or move. 1 As a reward for this good shooting
I gave her a pair of bracelets 2 (pahunchi) of diamonds
worth 100,000 rupees and scattered 1,000 ashrafis (over
her).
1 Note by Sayyid Alimad. They say that a poet recited this
impromptu couplet "
"Though Nur-Jahan be in form a woman,
In the ranks of men' she's a tiger-slayer.''
The point of this couplet is that before Nur-Jahan entered Jahangir's
harem she was the wife of Shir-afgan, the tiger-slayer. The line may
also read " In battle she is a man-smiter and a tiger- slayer."
from Tuzuk-e-Jahangiri or Jahangirnama is the autobiography of Mughal Emperor Nur-ud-din Muhammad Jahangir
Portrait of Nur Jahan, wife of Mughal Emperor Jahangir.* Anglo-Indian or "Company School" at Delhi. Gouache and gold on ivory. With original bevel-edged glass cover. Circa 1840. 9.5 x 7.1cm idealised types
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