Mss Eur C116/1, 2

Mss Eur C116/1, 2

85 paintings in two volumes illustrating a translation by Charles Boddam into English of a Persian version of the ‘Adhyatma Ramayana.’

By artists at Chapra (Bihar), c.1803-04.

Inscribed on title page: ‘The Adhy Atma Ramayan, a History of the Seventh Incarnation of Vishnu’;’ Translated from the Sanscrit into Persian by Anand G’han, a member of the College of Brahmins at Benares and again translated from the Persian into English In two Volumes. Vol. I, Vol. II. MDCCCIV.’

Watermarks of 1802.

Water-colour; size of volumes 10.75 by 7.75 ins.

Presented by Miss L.M. Boddam, 16 March 1944.

Note: Charles Boddam went to Bengal in the East India Company’s service as a writer in 1780. It is not clear from the Records where he was posted in his early years but in February 1788 he was appointed ‘Second Assistant to the Collector and Registrar to the Judge of Bihar’ in May 1793 he went to Saran District as ‘Judge of Dewanny Adawlut and Magistrate’. He died at Fort William on 13 August 1811.

The first two drawings portray Vyasa, traditional author of the ‘Adhyatma Ramyana,’ and Anand Gyan, the translator of the work into Persian. It was from Anand Gyan, a Brahmin professor at the Benares Sanskrit College, that Boddam obtained a Persian translation of the Sanskrit ‘Adhyatma Ramayana.’ Boddam wrote in the preface to this manuscript dated Chapra 1804, ‘In the year 1794 I became acquainted with Anand G’han, with whom I frequently conversed, and he, perceiving that I wished to obtain an insight into Eastern literature, gave me a copy of his translation of the Ramayan which he had lately finished. Being much pleased with this work I attempted to render it in English, during the hours of leisure from my official avocations.... The pictures annexed to this work were drawn by native artists under the superintendence of some Pandits, who explained to them the figures as described in their books’.

For a discussion of Boddam see Mildred Archer, ‘Benares and the British’, ‘History Today,’ June 1969, 405-410 and for a portrait, see Anne Crookshank and the Knight of Glin, ‘Irish portraits 1660-1860’ (London, 1969), no.72.