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PAÑCARATNAGITA | MS 2099

BHAGAVADGITA

MS 2099
MS Short Title BHAGAVADGITA
Text PAÑCARATNAGITA, THE BHAGAVADGITA WITH ACCOMPANYING TEXTS
Description MS in Sanskrit on paper, Kashmir, ca. 1800, 253 ff. (complete), 10x15 cm, single column, (6x11 cm), 6 lines in a bold calligraphic Devanagari script, initials and folio nos. in left margin, colophons and punctuation in red, titles in gold, frames in orange, red and black surrounding the text, title pages in elaborate illuminated frames imitating Islamic conventions in gold, red, orange, blue and black.
Binding Kashmir, ca. 1800, Yellow silk (outside) and cotton printed with red and black floral patterns (inside), sewn on 3 cords.
Provenance 1. Sam Fogg cat. 17(1996):50.
Commentary The Bhagavadgita is regarded as the supreme expression of Indian spirituality.

The Mahabharata is the longer of 2 major epic poems of India, written in Sanskrit ca. 400 BC, based on actual events between ca. 1400-1000 BC. The traditional author or compilator is the sage Vysasa. It is consists of 100,000 couplets (2 rhyming lines sections) in 18 books with a supplement, about 14 times the length of the Iliad. 

It includes a mass of legendary and didactic material worked around the heroic narrative of the fighting and story of the 2 related families Kauravas and Pandavas and the god Krishna as Lord Wishnu. Above all it is an exposition on dharma (codes of conduct), including the proper conduct of a king, a warrior, etc. Book VI is the Bhagavadgita (Song of the Lord), the single most important religious text of Hinduism; and the most widely read book next to the Bible.
Place of origin Kashmir
Dates ca. 1800