A collection of Hindu hymns

[Stotra tradition]. A collection of Stotras (hymns).

€ 3.500,00

A collection of Hindu stotras (hymns) in Sanskrit in Devanagari script. Stotras are a genre of Hindu religious text composed to be sung, as opposed to Shastras which are meant to be recited. A portion of the text also contains pages of repeated mantras.

The page at the front bears a seal of the type usually used for closing a letter ("Mortab") typical of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. The volume has lost its binding, and the pages are disordered. Although illustrations (indicated by a later hand in pencil on the cover) seem to have gone missing, possibly with some text, the volume nonetheless retains the majority of its original contents. Later notes in pencil on the front page place this volume to Kangra in c. 1800.

The volume consists of handsome pages in clearly written Devanagari within a neat yellow and red border, with rubrics indicating the end of texts or the name of the figure speaking. Marginal notes give an abbreviation identifying the text and a section number. Some pages contain the red and yellow margins but are blank inside, indicating that the margins were painted before the main text was filled in.

Manuscript culture endured far longer in India than in Europe, due to climatic conditions and the endurance of professional scribal practice. The printing-press was introduced in the sixteenth century by Portuguese Jesuits, but it remained largely the domain of missionaries and colonial powers. It was not until the second half of the nineteenth century that the printed book began to displace the manuscript as a medium for Indian culture. This volume of hymns offers several fine examples of Indian scribal practice around the turn of the nineteenth century.