The Bhagavata-purana Miniature Paintings from the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute Manuscript Dated 1648.

• Author: Rocher, Ludo
• Position: Review

With an Introduction and Synopses by TADASHI SHIMIZU. Translated by ROLF W. GIEBEL. Bibliotheca Codicum Asiaticorum, vol. 7. Tokyo: THE CENTRE FOR EAST ASIAN CULTURAL STUDIES, FOR UNESCO, 1993. Pp. 46, 128 plates. $63.10.

The initiative to photograph the illustrated manuscript of the Bhagavatapurana at the Bhandarkar Institute (acc. no. 61/1907/15; first reported by P. K. Gode: "An Illustrated Manuscript of the Bhagavata-Purana Copied in A.D. 1648" NIA 1 [1938-39]: 149-53; for other references, see p. 18) was taken by Musashi Tachikawa of the National Museum of Ethnology at Osaka. The filming was made possible thanks to financial support from the Tokyo Club.

The manuscript contains the text of and illustrations on skandhas VIII, IX, XI, and XII only. It records the name of the scribe: Jasavanta; the place where it was copied: Udayapura or Udayapuranagara; and the name of the painter: Sahabadi or Sahabaji. The latter has been identified with Sahibdin who, during the reign of Rana Jagat Singh (1628-52), lived in Udaipur, the capital of Mewar, in the mid-seventeenth century. It is possible, however, that some of the illustrations were the work of Manohar, Sahibdin's contemporary, if not his disciple. According to the author of the introduction, Tadashi...