RAJASTHAN, NORTH INDIA, CIRCA 1810

This richly illustrated manuscript concerns the categorisation and ranking of horses. The opening illustration shows Indra, the king of gods, making a request to the sage Shalihotra with images of the elephant Airavata, the god’s personal vehicle, and the divine horse with clipped wings appearing in the lower register. The manuscript proceeds with paintings of different types of horses of differing colours and appearance. Some are of uniform colour (ekavarma) and some are mixes (bahuvarma) or spotted. The horses are placed in different categories from superior (uttama) down to inferior (neecha). Some of the superior horses are named ‘airaki’ which no doubt it a corruption of ‘Iraqi’ and identifying these as the sought after Arabian horses. The manuscript describes the colours of horses as well as certain ailments and their remedies. Finally labelled diagrams of horses are given.