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 Bhishma seated on a carpet in a landscape. Bhishma instructs Yudhishthira in the nature of the soul, or the recognition of the jivatman and the dharmatman. 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.
Credit line: Gift of Gerald Reitlinger, 1978.
1598 <a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q50811843#P571" title="Edit this at Wikidata"><img alt="Edit this at Wikidata" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/OOjs_UI_icon_edit-ltr-progressive.svg/10px-OOjs_UI_icon_edit-ltr-progressive.svg.png" decoding="async" width="10" height="10" style="vertical-align: text-top" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/OOjs_UI_icon_edit-ltr-progressive.svg/15px-OOjs_UI_icon_edit-ltr-progressive.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/OOjs_UI_icon_edit-ltr-progressive.svg/20px-OOjs_UI_icon_edit-ltr-progressive.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="20" data-file-height="20"></a><br><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Mughal_Empire" class="extiw" title="w:en:Mughal Empire"><span title="muslim feudal state in India, 1526–1857">Mughal Empire</span></a> (1526–1857) <a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q50811843#P2348" title="Edit this at Wikidata"><img alt="Edit this at Wikidata" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/OOjs_UI_icon_edit-ltr-progressive.svg/10px-OOjs_UI_icon_edit-ltr-progressive.svg.png" decoding="async" width="10" height="10" style="vertical-align: text-top" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/OOjs_UI_icon_edit-ltr-progressive.svg/15px-OOjs_UI_icon_edit-ltr-progressive.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/OOjs_UI_icon_edit-ltr-progressive.svg/20px-OOjs_UI_icon_edit-ltr-progressive.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="20" data-file-height="20"></a>
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