Arts of the Islamic World & India including Fine Rugs & Carpets
Arts of the Islamic World & India including Fine Rugs & Carpets
THE HITOPADESA OR BOOK OF GOOD COUNCIL, A SIKH BOOK OF FABLES, SIGNED BY PANDIT DIYA RAM, NORTH INDIA, PUNJAB, LUDHIANA, DATED 1280 AH/1864 AD
Auction Closed
June 10, 06:00 PM GMT
Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
THE HITOPADESA OR BOOK OF GOOD COUNCIL, A SIKH BOOK OF FABLES, SIGNED BY PANDIT DIYA RAM, NORTH INDIA, PUNJAB, LUDHIANA, DATED 1280 AH/1864 AD
Urdu manuscript on watermarked coloured paper, 177 leaves plus 2 fly-leaves, 13 lines to the page, written in black nasta’liq, keywords in red, ruled in gold and blue, 41 illustrations framed by gold interlacing flowers, the text of the page within clouds against a gold ground, f.1b with a polychrome and gold illuminated heading, in a leather brown binding with painted boards
29 by 20cm.
Ex-collection Dr Josef Otten (1907-84), Austria.
The Hitopadesa is a Sanskrit collection of fables whose main objective was to teach morality and good government with both animal and human as characters. This Urdu translation is possibly the one made by Mir Bahadur ‘Ali al-Husayni in 1217 AH/1802 AD from the Mufarrih al-qulub, the Persian translation of the Hitopadesa, composed during the reign on the Mughal Emperor Akbar.