Mark Rasmussen
International Director
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Lot 836
AN ILLUSTRATED SCROLL OF THE MAHABHARATA KASHMIR, LATE 18TH CENTURY
23 July 2020, 10:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$47,575 inc. premium
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Dora Tan
Head of Sale, Specialist
AN ILLUSTRATED SCROLL OF THE MAHABHARATA
KASHMIR, LATE 18TH CENTURY
Opaque watercolor and ink heightened with gold on paper; together with its wood mount and original painted wood tube that bears a label identifying it as 1 of 18 in a Mahabharata set.
906 x 6 in. (2300 x 15 cm)
Opaque watercolor and ink heightened with gold on paper; together with its wood mount and original painted wood tube that bears a label identifying it as 1 of 18 in a Mahabharata set.
906 x 6 in. (2300 x 15 cm)
Footnotes
This expansive scroll from Kashmir is finely illuminated with an initial, replaced illustration of Ganesha followed by six vignettes from the Mahabharata surrounded by gold arabesques. A closely related example is published in Gupta, Masterpieces from the National Museum Collection, Delhi, 1985, p.91, no.123. A very similar scroll of the Bhagavata Purana is in the British Library (add.16624; Losty, The Art of the Book in India, Bradford, 1982). Losty explains that the tradition of copying Hindu works in minute scripts on long paper scrolls probably originated in Kashmir in the early 18th century, partly in imitation of miniature Qur'an manuscripts that circulated in north India. The style is relatively indeterminate and relates to the Delhi style of the late-18th and 19th centuries. Compare further examples sold at Christie's, London, 12 June 2018, lot 81 and Bonhams, New York, 17 September 2014, lot 149.