Add Or 2777

Sal seated in a horse-drawn chariot.

By Sadiq.

Formerly Album 69, no.10.

Inscribed beneath in Persian characters: ‘‘amal-i sadiq’ (the work of Sadiq); and: ‘suvar shudan-i sal bar arabah-i karn u navakhtan i bugha u nagirha’ (Sal sitting in the chariot and the sounding of the trumpets and drums); numbered above ‘28’, and in red ‘17’ (first numeral trimmed away?).

Gouache on biscuit-coloured paper; manuscript leaf from the ‘Razmnama,’ book 5, ‘Udyogaparvan’ (Book of Preparation).

219 by 126 mm; page 304 by 167 mm.

Reverse: page of text written in 27 lines of ‘naskhi’ script within margin rules; numbered above ‘29’; pasted above is an English sale catalogue entry for this miniature and Add.Or.2778 numbered 5’37.’

Sal is holding a bow and arrow and is preceded by musicians and a warrior. Sal’s chariot is driven by a charioteer dressed in pink, and drawn by a white and a black horse. The warrior on foot holds a sword vertically before him, and two empty chariots with their drivers are in the right foreground and left background. The landscape consists of a tree and a distant shrine.