This beautiful collection of illustrated manuscripts takes the reader on
a visual journey through great epics, charged romances and colourful
cautionary tales from the Indian subcontinent of the 16th to 20th
centuries. The rich variety of languages, religious traditions and
schools of art of the Indian subcontinent are brought together in this
exceptional library of Indian manuscripts. Religious and philosophical
texts from Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, Jain, Sikh and Zoroastrian schools
of thought are all represented in illustrated manuscripts. This library
shows how these various faiths borrowed, interacted and influenced one
another in the subcontinent. From palm leaf manuscripts of the South to
pothi format manuals from the Himalayas in Nepal, to the sophisticated
and highly illustrated manuscripts of the Imperial Moghul court, this
catalogue takes the reader on a visual journey through great epics,
charged romances and colorful cautionary tales. Highlights include an
important and lavishly illustrated palm-leaf manuscript by 'The Emperor
of Poets', Upendra Bhanja (c. 1640-1740), and a rare Bihar-i Danesh (The
Springtime of Knowledge) by Shaikh 'Inayatallah Kamboh of Delhi, from
late 17th/early 18th century - the fi nest known copy of the manuscript.
An exceptional album of 18th-century Indian paintings from the
Liechtenstein Princely Collections offers insight into the fascination
for Indian courtly life among the nobility of Europe. A number of
exceptional painted scrolls are also presented here. Scroll painting has
a long history in India. Story tellers would travel from village to
village giving performances of well-known epics and regional stories
often accompanied by musicians and with the visual aid of a painted
scroll. One particularly vibrant scroll, over 15 meters in length, of
the Madel Puranamu, was probably commissioned by a wealthy member of the
dhobi caste to celebrate his community's origins and favor with Shiva.
Among the many intriguing maps and manuals - on art, astrology, omens,
divination and auspicious symbols - is an 18th-century Nepalese sorcer's
manual, which contains instructions for protective and exorcistic Shaiva
rituals, mantras and sacrificial blood-offerings. Its binding includes
feathers and traces of blood and skin, which by tradition are fragments
of the 'five beasts' - buffalo, chicken, dog, goat and cow.
