A PRINCESS IN AN ORNATE HOWDAH ON AN ELEPHANT, ILLUSTRATED LEAF FROM A MANUSCRIPT OF THE HUSN U DIL (BEAUTY AND HEART), DECCAN, LATE 16TH CENTURY OR LATER

Ink, opaque watercolour and gold on paper, 8 lines of text on reverse written horizontally and diagonally in nasta'liq script in black ink in four columns, margins ruled in yellow and red

This leaf comes from a verse manuscript of the Husn u Dil (Beauty and Heart) by an unidentified author. It is based on a prose work of the Husn u Dil by Fattahi Nishapuri (d.1448). 

Ten folios from the same manuscript are in the Spencer Collection, New York Public Library (see Schmitz 1992, no.III.24, pp.217-218), while others are in the Prince of Wales Museum, Mumbai and formerly in the Edwin Binney Collection.

According to Ehsan Yarshater, the style of script would point to an 18th century origin (Schmitz 1992, p.217), and as a result the folios in the New York Public Library were attributed cautiously to the 18th century. However, the style of painting is perhaps closer to earlier Deccani modes, particularly a manuscript dated 1625-55 in the British Library of the Javahir al-musikat-i Muhammadi (a Ragamala derivative text which includes descriptions of the ragas in Hindi written in Arabic characters, see Titley 1977, no.1, pl.1, to which Schmitz also refers), a richly illustrated copy of the Nujum al-Ulum from Bijapur dated 1570-71 in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (see Leach 1995, vol.II, pp.819-889), a manuscript of the Tarif-i Husain Shahi, from Ahmadnagar of circa 1565 (see Zebrowski 1983, figs.1 and 2, pp.18; Michell and Zebrowski 1999, fig.108) and a Ragamala series of the late 16th century (see Zebrowski 1983, fig. 29, p.46).

Another page from the same manuscript, also formerly owned by Cary Welch, was published by Maggs Bros, London, in their Bulletin No.22, March 1967 (no.82), and a third owned by Cary Welch was sold in these rooms 12 December 1972, lot 66. For the Binney folio see Binney 1981, p.30, fig.49.