A Research on Khosrow II’s¬¬ Hunting Relief in Taq-e Bustan and Its Influence on Tang-e Vashi Relief of Fathali Shah Qajar

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

Abstract

The motif of hunting has always existed in the Iranian art from the primary wall paintings of Paleolithic caves to the modern artifacts and has raised different concepts over time and as the result of contributions by different cultures. As agriculture and animal domestication progressed, a decrease occurred in the primacy of hunting.   Nevertheless, its religious aspects remained in the process of dedicating the hunted meat as an offering to the temples.  Meanwhile, it is interesting to know that kings and princes throughout the Persian history have hunted with diverse intentions.
 
In various historical eras, especially during the Sassanid period, this evolutionary process took different concept as hunting became the most common subject of the Sassanid reliefs and the Sassanid kings established special places named as “Shekar Gah” which means hunting place or hunting garden. Khosrow Parviz besides making a hunting place in Taq-e Bustan established two other hunting places near Ghasr-e Shirin.  These places are so similar to the hunting place of Taq-e Bustan from the standpoint of climatic conditions and structural features. 
 
This article aims to investigate the concept of hunting in the Sassanid Period, specially the hunting places of the Khosrow II.  Therefore, the hunting place of the Khosrow II at Taq-e Bustan and the wild boar and deer hunting motives in both sides of the Taq-e Bozorg or the great vault of Taq-e Bustan and their influence on the formation of hunting place of Fathali Shah in the Tang-e Vashi as well as his Relief over there has been investigated. 
 
The study of reliefs of the Taq-e Bustan has revealed their derived inspiration from the wall paintings of the late Parthian and Sassanid periods, as wall paintings with hunting motives of the Sassanid period is affected by the Parthian wall paintings. Taq-e Bustan hunting reliefs have influenced the Islamic hunting motives as are mainly observable in the Qajar Period’s reliefs.  This influence is obviously visible in Fathali Shah-e Qatar’s hunting reliefs in Tang-e Vashi.  The reason of this influence can be found in the social and political conditions of that period.  Both areas (Taq- e Bustan and Tang-e Vashi), are similar in the favorable climate and environmental conditions for making hunting place and hunt relief, but they are different in combined and shaping features. 
 
Moreover, the main difference remains in the purpose of making the reliefs.  As in Taq-e Bustan with existence of Anahita  goddess and sanctity of hunting in the Sassanid period, more religious intentions along with representing of king’s power are participated in its establishment, but it seems the main purpose of Tang-e Vashi  relief in such arduous and out of sight area cannot be connected with the aspect of indicating the king’s power or to represent religious concepts. Rather, it was more intended to show the persistence of Qajar dynasty and Fathalishah’s descendants.  Here the king uses the reliefs to portray the persistence of Qajar dynasty and the transfer of power to his own sons.  His second purpose could be establishing a resemblance between ancient Iranian kings and his efforts to expand his kingdom and provide services to the public.
 
Overall, the hunting places and the hunting relief in Taq-e Bustan comprise a banquet-religious complex, but in Tang-e Vashi more attention has been paid to banquet complex alongside representing of persistence of king’s dynasty.   The method that has been used in the current research is based on the study of written resources, archeological field research and analysis of the achieved data.  Various resources and written documents have referred to hunting and hunting place in the period of Sassanid dynasty, but so far no one has paid enough attention to the content of hunting as the important aspect of the Sassanid culture.

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