- Title
- Illustration with Bovines and Demons (verso), Calligraphy (recto), Folio from a Bhagavata Purana (Ancient Stories of the Lord)
- Date Made
- circa 1675-1700
- Medium
- Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper
- Dimensions
- Image (b) Image): 9 7/8 x 5 1/8 in. (25.0825 x 13.0175 cm)
Sheet (Sheet): 14 11/16 x 11 1/4 in. (37.3063 x 28.575 cm)
Image (a) Image): 12 1/4 x 8 5/8 in. (31.115 x 21.9075 cm)
Frame: 22 × 18 in. (55.88 × 45.72 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.90.86.2
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
This album folio is from a Persian translation of the Bhagavata Purana (Ancient Stories of the Lord). Another folio from this dispersed manuscript may be in the National Museum, New Delhi (71.130). Although the verso’s exact scene has not been identified, its imagery of a fort with a water tank and cattle generally accords with the descriptions in the nastaliq Persian text on the recto. The folio has margins with flowering plants and a border of floral medallions.
Recto: Even though I am involved in the invention of this fortress on a hill,
I am excused from his commencement in the city fortress of Sahrsa {Shahr Sa} where life-giving water is stored and where the snare of suspicions and opinions cannot reach the battlements of its fortress. Keys have been manufactured for its gates.
When Mahiya Div {Mahadeva} became remorseful and ashamed of …
from the force of his shame he spoke these words:
O one whose knowledge is beyond limit,
You who are rich within and without,
The mine has become intelligent through you.
From the sight of you the eye is all seeing,
From all around voices speak of you,
Amongst all gatherings is the murmuring of your name.
Both worlds listen for your voice,
No one is a stranger on account of you,
No one is separate and negligent of you,
Shaykh and brahman alike look to you
You resemble everyone yet awares
From the strength of the she-cow my wings resemble amber.
Always made like the calf of the she-cow{?}.
(Translation by Z. Faridany-Akhavan.)
- Selected Bibliography
- Pal, Pratapaditya. Indian Painting, vol.1. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1993.
