A Set of Five Illustrations to the Bhagavata Purana, India, Jaipur, circa 1830-1850

The set of five illustrations to the Bhagavata Purana depicting the following legends: Brahma reciting the story of Creation to all beings with Vishnu recumbent on Seshanaga at left; a procession bearing Rama and Lakshmana on an elephant led by Bharata and Shatrughna on horseback, entering a palace; Krishna and Balarama rescuing and restoring the son of their teacher Guru Sandipani to him as their gurudakshina; the great sage Shukadeva narrating the story of king Bharata’s attachment to a deer to king Parikshit; an illustration in three registers depicting three of the fourteen Manus or progenitors of humanity along with their lineages – Savarni (or Surya Savarnika), Daksha-savarni and Brahma-savarni.

The paintings are executed in the crisp, mature Jaipur style of the nineteenth Century. See Sotheby’s New York, 16th March 2016, lot 886, and Sotheby’s New York 22nd March 2018, lot 1012 for two other sets of illustrations from the same series.