Enrica Medugno
Senior Sale Coordinator
Lot 229
A manuscript in scroll form, with thirteen paintings depicting figures from Hindu mythology North India or Rajasthan, 19th Century
22 May 2025, 11:00 BST
London, New Bond Street£2,000 - £3,000
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Oliver White
Head of Department
A manuscript in scroll form, with thirteen paintings depicting figures from Hindu mythology
North India or Rajasthan, 19th Century
North India or Rajasthan, 19th Century
nagari manuscript on thin paper, in scroll form, four illustrations in gouache and gold at the beginning depicting Ganesh, Brahma, Siva and Parvati, and a devotee before Siva seated on a tigerskin, matsya avatar, the Churning of the Ocean, varaha avatar, Krishna decapitating a king [?], Parashurama avatar, Vasudeva carrying Krishna across the Yamuna, Vamana (dwarf) avatar, Narasimha avatar, Siva seated on a lotus with devotees in attendance, text written in black ink between margins ruled in gold, blue and red
4 m 96 cm. x 3.5 cm.
4 m 96 cm. x 3.5 cm.
Footnotes
J. P. Losty, in The Art of the Book in India, Bradford 1982, p. 145, no. 130, comments 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, written in ghubari (from ghubar, 'dust').
Compare further examples sold at Christie's, Arts of India, 12th June 2018, lot 81 (attributed to Rajasthan/North India, with Alwar and Jaipur as possible origins, where the paintings are in a similar style); and Bonhams, New York, Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art, 17th September 2014, lot 149 (attributed to Kashmir). See also a scroll of the Bhagavata Purana, Kashmir, 18th Century, illustrated in S. P. Gupta, Masterpieces from the National Museum Collection, Delhi 1985, p. 91, no. 123.