Madan Kali: The Head of Cheetah

Vipul Singh

Madan Kali was Akbar’s favourite Cheetah. It was so awe-inspiring in outlook and drop-dead gorgeous that the ruler declared it the head of all Cheetahs. It would sit alongside Akbar’s throne.

Figure: Akbar Hunting Blackbuck using his trained Cheetah in 1572 (Akbarnama)

Akbar, the Mughal ruler, many of know was dyslexic. But he developed fondness for Cheetahs at his childhood. When he was just 13 years old, he was presented a Cheetah in gift by an old courtier Wali Beg. Akbar used to call him Fatehbaz. As Akbar acquired adulthood, he developed a keen interest in hunting and would take Fatehbaz along. He would keep Fatehbaz leashed in the court. Later, he tamed many more Cheetahs and gave them different names. One of his Cheetahs was so awe-inspiring in outlook and drop-dead gorgeous that Akbar declared it the head of all Cheetahs. He named it Madan Kali. Madan Kali would sit alongside Akbar’s throne. There were many other robust Cheetahs that were tied around Akbar’s court, which were captured from various locations of central and western India. Akbarnama is replete with many episodes of his capture of Cheetahs from different locations. It is mentioned that Akbar had around 9000 cheetahs in his menagerie.

The Cheetah are the fastest land mammals on earth and can reach up to a speed of 70 miles an hour. Historically, Cheetah were found in Asia and Africa. In Asia, they were found in Iran, Afghanistan and India. They are known as Asiatic Cheetahs. They are distinct from the African ones in terms of size. They are smaller than African Cheetah, but have longer legs, very strong neck and long nostril giving extra oxygen. Due to this physical characteristic the Asiatic Cheetah are swifter and very successful while chasing its prey. 

The Persian chronicles of the sixteenth century would tell us that there were at least ten thousand Asiatic Cheetah at that time in India. The Cheetahs are dangerous but normally did not attack the humans. Therefore, humans found this wild cat relatively easy to tame for hunting. Ever since medieval times they were tamed like dogs and were tied to a leash. Prithviraj Chauhan is also said to have tamed Cheetahs. The wild Cheetah was trained by individual keepers and it normally took three to four months before being used for royal hunts. The Mughals used wild cheetahs routinely to hunt other animals which was called coursing. The painters of the Mughal court have often depicted the royal hunt with Cheetah accompanying the Badshah. It rather became very common under during the reign of emperor Akbar and Jahangir. Jahangir was a a great lover of nature. Like his father, he too was very fond of animals and used the Cheetahs for hunting. He has mentioned in his autobiography Tuzuk-e-Jahangiri that he had engaged in Cheetah coursing for capturing more than 400 antelope near Delhi. Jahangir not only tamed Cheetah, but also hunted the wild Cheetahs.

The Mughals at that time did not realise that the hunting of the wild Cheetahs was taking a toll on their population. While they developed a fascination for Cheetah they thought of breeding them. Abul Fazl mentions in Akbarnama that Akbar attempted to breed the Cheetahs. He did not realise that Cheetah’s ability to breed in captivity is limited. They do not really mate in captivity and need a wild environment. The result was that gradually the population of the Cheetahs began to decline and the Mughals did not realise this. During the time of emperor Jahangir, however, the first cheetah was successfully bred in captivity. This was possibly one-off incident. The practice of hunting and taming of Cheetah continued even under the regional kingdoms of Rajasthan and Central India.

After the arrival of the British the fate of the cheetah was sealed completely. There was a tremendous increase in the hunting of wild cats and Cheetahs were no exception. The British also cleared many forest habitats initially to make way for tea and coffee plantations and then for the logs they required for railways. The habitat of many of the wild animals such as the Cheetahs were threatened. The colonial documents also suggest that the British government considered the Cheetah as a vermin harmful for humans and even placed bounties on its killing. The British officers hunted many of the wild cats and got themselves photographed with it. These bounty hunting further added to the rapid decline of Cheetah population in India. The princely rulers of India also continued to use Cheetahs for hunting.  The practice of taming Cheetahs and using them for hunting blackbucks continued in the 1920s despite the fact that the Cheetahs were getting extinct. In 1947, a princely state ruler from Madhya Pradesh (now Chhattisgarh), Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo, shot three cheetahs. He got himself photographed with the three dead Cheetahs following the current trend without realising that his act would go down in history as one of the most atrocious cruelties committed in the name of hunting. It is believed that these were the last remaining wild cheetahs of India. In 1952, the Cheetah was officially declared extinct.