manuscript;
painting;
book-illustration
- Museum number
- 1958,1011,0.4
- Description
-
Page from a manuscript of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa. On the verso, painting in opaque watercolour, in two registers, showing: below: three cowherds bring their cows to the river Yamunā to drink and crouch down to slake their own thirst; they then ask Kṛṣṇa how to find food. Above, Kṛṣṇa tells a group of cowherds, all standing in a line to go and ask the brahmin ladies who were then offering Vedic sacrifices. The episode is from Canto 10, end of chapter 22 and beginning of chapter 23, just after the episode of stealing the cowgirls' clothes. On the recto, 17 lines of Sanskrit text in black ink from end of Chapter 22 of Canto 10 of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa and beginning of Chapter 23, with colophon details in red, between two red margins. On paper.
- Production date
- 1500 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 18.10 - 23.90 centimetres
-
Width: 55 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- The page is from a dispersed manuscript once mistakenly believed to have had a colophon reference to to Palam, outside Delhi, although no colophon evidence has been produced to suppport this. The latest thinking associates it with other manuscripts in this style believed to come from Mewar or Gwalior in the early 16th century and to be therefore the earliest documents of Rajput painting.
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated titles
-
Associated Title: Bhāgavata Purāṇa
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Associated Title: Bhagavata Purana
- Acquisition date
- 1958
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1958,1011,0.4