A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c15.s5.4

c15.s5.4

The Persian adaptation of the *Mahābhārata*, entitled the *Razmnāma*, has a preface by Abūl Fāzl, dated A. D. 1588. The best copy, now at Jaipur, which is said to have cost £40,000, contains 169 pictures, or 'miniatures', most of which have been reproduced in the magnificent volume edited by Colonel Hendley. The traditional skill of the Hindus in drawing animals, especially monkeys and elephants, is well illustrated by the works of the artist named Bābū, as for example Plate XXI in Colonel Hendley's book. The Hindu tradition is also apparent in the treatment of trees and plants, and in the use of indigo blue as the colour for the bodies of divinities. Many of the pictures are purely Hindu in feeling—e. g. Plate XXIX by Kānha, representing antelopes gambolling in a forest; Plate XIII by Tulsī, the choice by Damayantī of Nala as her husband (reproduced in Pl. LXV); and Pl. LXXVIII—Rāja Sudarsan and his wife as hermits—by Jaswant and Tārā.