A catalogue of the Ashmolean’s collection of Indian art by J. C. Harle and Andrew Topsfield (published Oxford, 1987).
This illustration comes from a dispersed manuscript of the Razmnama, a Persian translation of the great Hindu Mahabharata epic made during Akbar’s reign. It depicts the Pandava brothers and their allies in a battle with the king of Anga in Bengal. The work was probably commissioned by Akbar’s leading minister, Abd ur-Rahim Khankhanan, and executed by artists trained in the imperial studio. The Ashmolean has five other pages from this manuscript, and many others are in the British Museum.
Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 18 July-13 September 1981, and London: Sotheby Parke Bernet, 1981, Eastern Ceramics and Other Works of Art from the Collection of Gerald Reitlinger: Catalogue of the Memorial Exhibition, Deborah Willis, ed. (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum and London: Sotheby Parke Bernet, 1981), no. 407 on p. 144, p. 141, illus. p. 144
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