RAJASTHAN, NORTH INDIA, LATE 18TH/EARLY 19TH CENTURY

A very similar scroll of the Bhagavata Purana is in the British Library (add.16624) and is published in Jeremiah P. Losty, The Art of the Book in India, Bradford, 1982. Lostly explains that the tradition of copying Hindu works such as the Bhagavata Purana, Bhagavad Gita and Devi Mahatmya in minute scripts on long paper scrolls probably originated in Kashmir in the early 18th century, partly under the influence 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 century. Alwar and Jaipur have been suggested as production centres (Losty, op.cit., p.145).