Manuscrit de dévotion sanskrit, illustré de miniatures [Mahâbârata]

Rare manuscript in codex format, illustrated with 11 painted miniatures heightened with gold depicting Indian deities.

Red cloth binding, the covers decorated with faded floral motifs. Skillful restorations to the spine and corners, some foxing and ink stains.

Entirely executed on paper, this manuscript comprises 288 pages written in six lines in Devanāgarī script, probably in Sanskrit or Hindi, in black and red ink. The use of red generally indicates the presence of a refrain or an invocation. The text is adorned with frames in blue, red, orange, and black, whose colours and dimensions vary from one leaf to another. These decorations are absent from the last four leaves of the manuscript, while conversely some leaves display empty frames. Several contemporary handwritten annotations appear outside these decorations. 

Among the Indian deities represented here, some are recognisable by their attributes, notably Durga, Vishnu, Brahmā, and Ganesha. Their presence within the same work underscores the composite nature of the manuscript, which contains several narratives rather than a single text.

The library of the University of Cambridge holds a manuscript whose layout, with its polychrome frames, closely resembles that of the present manuscript. The Cambridge copy, also in codex format, dates from 1860 and, according to the library, belongs to a category of manuscripts produced in northern India in the 19th century. It contains, like our copy, several devotional narratives: the Gaṇeśastotra, the Bhagavadgītā, the Viṣṇusahasranāma, the Bhīṣmastva, the Anusmṛti, the Gajendramokṣaṇa, the Śivastotra, the Gurugītā, the Viṣṇupañjarastotra, the Nārāyaṇopaniṣad, the Kālāgnirūdropaniṣad, the Ātmabodha and the Viṣṇumahimnastotra.

Exceptional 19th-century Sanskrit manuscript intended for Hindu worship, comprising various sacred texts illustrated with 11 beautifully preserved painted miniatures.