Item MS128 - Bhāgavata Purāṇa [Bhagavata Purana]

Rolled manuscript, 39 m long, 7.5 cm wide, .2 micro metres thick.

The manuscript consists of twelve cantos (skandhas). Text on highly burnished paper is in india ink with illustrations and miniatures in gouache with gold pigment; borders in gold leaf. The text is preceded by twenty-five miniatures. There are forty-eight miniatures interspersed with the text which is lavishly illustrated. Sacred texts in rolled manuscript form were first created in eighteenth-century Kashmir. In the nineteenth century these manuscripts were created in northern India, particularly in Alwar and Jaipur. It is more likely that this manuscript is nineteenth rather than eighteenth century.

The manuscript is housed in a cylindrical silver container. The initials S.B. below the image of griffin are engraved on the lid. Family legend holds that the initials are those of an officer who saved the life of the Nawab Wazir of Oudh and was presented with the manuscript as a token of gratitude. During a hunting expedition the Nawab had been attacked by a tiger.