Illuminated with 29 miniatures

[Sinahasavatisi]. Sinahasavatisi [The thirty-two stories of the Lion Throne].

Auf Anfrage

A beloved folk tale, illustrated with twenty-nine exquisite miniatures, depicting the beautiful women whose statues surrounded the throne of one King Vidramitya. In the story, the throne, which bestows invincibility on its owner, is given to the king Vidramitya by the god Indra. However, Vidramitya loses the throne, which is only to be recovered many years after his death by another king, Bhoj. The latter is about to assume his place on it, when the statues burst out in laughter. Each statue proceeds to tell Bhoj a story for the sake of humbling him and praising Vikramaditya.

King Vikramaditya was probably the historical king who reigned in Malava, whose name was given to the Vikrama era that begins in 58/57 BCE, and is the basis for the most frequently used calendar in Hindu manuscripts. The story was one of the first texts translated into modern Hindi, a task accomplished in 1805 by Lulluji Lal (ca. 1763-1825 CE) from a Braj bhasa version of the Sanskrit text.

The illustrations begin with the fourth of the statue-women, Candrakala, and continue through the 32nd, who is depicted alongside a kneeling figure, presumably King Bhoj. This figure is clad in the distinctive royal Nepalese costume, providing the most important clue as to the origin of the manuscript. The paintings are jewel-like in their precision and show subtle variations in the costume and posture of each of the figures. The illustrator's subtlety is apparent throughout in individual touches, such as the inclusion of a flower, puspa, in allusion to the subject's name, Puspavati (fol. 21v). The patterns on the embroidered textiles and furnishings have been marvellously suggested through the use of pricked gold and silver, and the figures' veils, jewellery and hennaed hands and feet are rendered in great detail.