567 SOLD Antique Indian Sanskrit Illustrated Manuscript with Kashmir style Paintings

Sold to a discerning Antique Art-Lover

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This is an old prayer book written in Sanskrit with gorgeous full color Indian dieties pictured in front. Krishna, Ganesh and Shiva. It has been used a lot and the cloth on board cover is near threadbare. One side of the cover is not connected to the book any longer.

The inside pages are clean and crisp; easy to read. It is handwritten on waxy paper. It is endearing to see some side notes and markings, and some white corrections made to cover mistakes in the writing. Most pages are intact, a couple loose. It looks like there may have been another page with the pictures but it is long gone.

4-1/2" x 7" x 3/4" thick.

Approx. 133 handwritten pages of text and 3 full color painted panels.

Age unknown

Similarly illuminated and illustrated manuscripts can be found in

John Guy, Palm-leaf and paper: illustrated manuscripts of India and Southeast Asia(Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria,1982) pp. 37-38;

Manuscripts from the Himalayas and the Indian subcontinent. Catalogue 17(London: Sam Fogg Rare Books, 1996), pp. 47-48;

B. N. Goswamy, The word is sacred, sacred is the word: the Indian manuscript tradition(New Delhi: Niyogi Books, 2006), pp. 218-221.

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This item has spent a lifetime being used for the purpose of its creation with the original artist/user. Signs of this life lived heartily may be present on the piece in the form of stains, thread loss, loose threads, holes, tears, color run and other imperfections. Therefore the condition must be assumed to be “not” perfect. More photos of such imperfections will be provided on request.

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