A Library of Manuscripts from India

This catalogue presents a beautiful collection of illustrated manuscripts that takes the reader on a visual journey through great epics, charged romances and colourful cautionary tales from the Indian subcontinent of the 16th to 20th centuries.

The rich variety of languages, religious traditions and schools of art of the Indian subcontinent are brought together. Religious and philosophical texts from Buddhists, Hindu, Islamic, Jain, Sikh and Zoroastrian schools of thought are all represented in this exceptional library. 

Highlights include an important and lavishly illustrated palm-leaf manuscript by 'The Emperor of Poets', Upendra Bhanja (c. 1640-1740 ce), and a rare Bihar-i Danesh (The Springtime of Knowledge) by Shaikh 'Inayatallah Kamboh of Delhi, from the late 17th/ early 18th century - the finest known copy of the manuscript. An exceptional album of 18th century Indian paintings from the Liechtenstein Princely Collections offers insight into the fascination with Indian courtly life among the nobility of Europe. A number of exceptional painted scrolls are also presented here, as well as intriguing maps and manuals - on art, astrology, ommens, divinations and auspicious symbols.