Matthew Thomas
Senior Specialist
Lot 113•
A rare, large Janamsakhi manuscript, comprising a biography of Guru Nanak Punjab, late 18th Century
30 March 2021, 11:00 BST
London, New Bond Street£25,000 - £35,000
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A rare, large Janamsakhi manuscript, comprising a biography of Guru Nanak
Punjab, late 18th Century
Punjab, late 18th Century
Gurmukhi manuscript on paper, 503 leaves, 21 lines to the page written in black ink between vertical margin rules, occasional marginal commentaries, modern aubergine-purple leather
313 x 360 mm.
313 x 360 mm.
Footnotes
Provenance
Formerly with Feret Fils booksellers, Bordeaux, France (label affixed to one leaf).
Private UK collection.
The manuscript is on an unusually large scale, when compared with most examples of Janamsakhi manuscripts.
Janamsakhi texts were first compiled in the 17th Century, in various different versions. They consist of collections of anecdotes (sakhi), not always in any particular order, and also include quotations from the Adi Granth as well as other apocryphal sayings of the Guru.
The India Office Library has four Janamsakhis in its collection, all dating to the 17th or 18th Century. For a discussion of these and the Janamsakhis in general, see C. Shackle, Catalogue of the Panjabi and Sindhi Manuscripts in the India Office Library, London 1977, pp. 19-23.