A Jain cosmographical illustrated manuscript of the Sangrahani Sutra, India, Rajasthan, possibly Asapur in Ajmer, dated VS 1772/1715 AD
Estimate
8,000 - 12,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Prakrit manuscript on paper, 51 pages, written in black and red devanagari script, accompanied by minute commentary, numbered in black ink throughout in lower right corner on recto of all folios, comprising twenty-eight illustrations in gouache heightened with gold and silver, the loose pages in silk-lined board cover
leaf: 11.5 by 26.5cm.
The Sangrahani Sutra is a Jain cosmological treatise composed in 1136 AD by the monk Shrichandra Shastri from the Shvetambara (white-clad) sect of Jainism. The text relates to the Jain understanding of the structure of the universe and the mapping of space. The present manuscript is an eighteenth-century copy of the treatise comprising vivid illustrations of various sizes including cosmic diagrams and a depiction of the cosmic man (lokapurusha). The text is accompanied by a vernacular commentary in Brajbhasha. The colophon on f.52v includes a Vikram Samvat date of 1772 (1715 AD) and mentions the name of a possible scribe - Pandit Sri Vinaya Vijaya, or his pupil. It also includes a location, Asmapur, which possibly relates to the village of Asapur near Ajmer in Rajasthan, western India.
A comparable illustrated copy of the Sangrahani Sutra, dated to the eighteenth century, from Western India, is in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London (IS.35:44-1971).
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