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Lot Essay
This text is a verse adaptation of the Ramayana dedicated to the Emperor Jahangir, whose portrait appears at the beginning of the manuscript. It is not so much a translation but an adaptation - moving the focus of Valmiki’s original away from the themes of duty and righteousness, and transforming it into a love story focused on the protagonists. Other copies include three in the India Office Library (Ethe Hermann, Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, Oxford, 1937, nos.1967-9, pp.1098-1099) and one in the Bodleian Library (Hermann, op.cit,, no.1315, pp.812-813).
The distinctive tall slender figures with their elongated almond-shaped eyes, are distinctive features of this manuscript which is closely related to Bikaner painting of the mid-17th century. The drapery of the lenghas worn by the male figures are very close to that worn by a depiction of Krishna in a Ragamala illustration in the British Museum attributed to Bikaner, circa 1690, (Roda Ahluwalia, Rajput Painting: Romantic, Divine and Courtly Art from India, London, 2008, no.62, p.101). The Hindu rulers of Bikaner were very closely connected to the Mughal court, a context into which our Persian translation of a Hindu epic fits well.
The distinctive tall slender figures with their elongated almond-shaped eyes, are distinctive features of this manuscript which is closely related to Bikaner painting of the mid-17th century. The drapery of the lenghas worn by the male figures are very close to that worn by a depiction of Krishna in a Ragamala illustration in the British Museum attributed to Bikaner, circa 1690, (Roda Ahluwalia, Rajput Painting: Romantic, Divine and Courtly Art from India, London, 2008, no.62, p.101). The Hindu rulers of Bikaner were very closely connected to the Mughal court, a context into which our Persian translation of a Hindu epic fits well.