Research
These folios of the dispersed Tularam Bhagavata Purana series, named after the Delhi collector Tularam, represent events from the tenth book of the Bhagavata Purana. Scholars have debated the dating of these folios from western India and presented below are our findings and suggestions regarding dating, style, and place of origin.
About the Title 'Tularam Bhagavata Purana Series':
This manuscript originally consisted of seventy folios that were in the possession of Tularam, a mid-twentieth-century dealer from Delhi. A study of the forty-two folios that we have reunited reveals different hands and possibly folios from closely related manuscripts brought together by the dealer and subsequently dispersed. We have therefore chosen to keep the title after the name of the collector. 'Series' here implies stylistically closely related but possibly different manuscripts on the same theme.
Format:
The format is vertical and the folios approximately measure 9-10 X 8-9 inches. Paintings, often rubricated by thick borders, cover the entire page. The only folio found with painted verso, which appears to be a later addition, resides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Text/Inscription:
Most of the folios bear one-line inscriptions in old Gujarati at the top of the folio. These inscriptions describe the scene unfolding in the painting. There is no colophon to indicate the date, patron, or artists at work.
Date:
Mid- 17th century: Hermann Goetz (1952)
ca.1625-50: Stell Kramrisch (1986)
ca. 1720: Milo Beach (1992)
ca. 1625: B.N.Goswamy (1999)
Suggested Date:
ca. Mid to late 17th century: On the basis of iconographic features, compositional elements, foliage patterns, and vernacular elements, a tentative dating of the mid to late 17th century has been suggested (see details below). There are however some folios that may be dated to the early 18th century as the one of Krishna holding up Mount Govardhan in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Summary of findings:
The manuscript was first studied by Hermann Goetz who wrote about it in an article in 1952 (Goetz 1952). According to Goetz, when he examined the manuscript, it had 70 folios, bound in an album and arranged right to left, preceded by a Punjabi poem in Persian. Goetz believed that it was bound at a later date with the poem in Persian and was originally in the loose-leaf format. The manuscript was in the possession of Tularam, a dealer from Delhi, who was in the process of selling individual folios. Goetz reports documenting and photographing the manuscript when it was in album form. According to Goetz, stylistically the paintings incorporated Mughal, early Marwari, Deccani, and Rajput elements. On the basis of style, he assigned the paintings to mid- 17th century Marwar, in particular Jalor.
Walter Spink (1971) in his reading, relied on the dates provided by lenders for the exhibition Krishnamandala at the University of Michigan, i.e.mid -17th century. Two folios from this series are published in Krishnamandala, one of which is supposed to be in Edwin Binney 3rd’s collection but not traceable in the repositories explored so far. The second folio was on loan to the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York but was returned to the owner. The current whereabouts are unknown. The Brooklyn Museum has the frontispiece to the series which is preceded by a Ganesha Lakshmi page, now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Stella Kramrisch (1986, Nos.39-42) dated the Philadelphia Museum of Art folios ca.1625-50 based on their stylistic affiliation with the Rajasthani paintings of the time.
Milo Beach dated the series ca. 1720 and assigned it to Surat, based on a comparison with a Devi Mahatmya of 1719 CE. He suggested that the representation of foliage on the folios was very close to the contemporary textiles of the region. The Devi Mahatmya manuscript bears a colophon stating the date of composition as VS 1779 in Suryapur. The wooden book cover records the name of some of the family members of Atmaram Bukhanwala, an affluent family of Surat and likely owners of the ms. at some point (Desai, Kalpana 2002, 78-79). Most scholars have since concurred with Beach's dating.
B.N. Goswamy et al (1999, 185) note the ‘folkish’ work and ‘chaotic cheerfulness’ prevalent in this series along with the ‘flat cream background ‘and ‘figures remaining on the same plane with no overlapping’, ‘foliage bearing the aspect of coarse pietra dura’ but no reasoning for the dating and location is offered. It might be the Jehangiri turban, patka, and attire of the gopis that prompts the ascription to ca. 1625.
Topsfield (2014,153) concurs with Beach in that ‘its floral, vegetal and figural elements, unusually set against pallid whitish or yellowed grounds, suggest a close aesthetic relationship with the decorative repertoire of contemporary Gujarati printed and embroidered textiles.’
General: The only folio known to have verso is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and bears a painting that appears to be a later addition. Whether the other folios have a verso blank, painted, or inscribed is not known at this point in the research.
The folios compiled and tabulated above are dated anywhere from the mid-1600s to 1800 and not all institutions recognize Tularam as the owner/dealer.
Preliminary Conclusions:
1. About the Manuscript(s):
Goetz describes most folios as having white or yellow, occasionally light green backgrounds, decorative and scattered foliage reminiscent of textile patterns, and some divided into rectangular panels with figures filled in doors and windows. Based on the latter description of the ‘original’ collection, it can be concluded that the folios compiled may belong to a single manuscript with different artists at work or closely related manuscripts all being in the possession of Tularam, a dealer residing in Delhi around 1950. We have therefore recommended that a possible title for the folios could be the ‘Tularam Bhagavata Purana series’ after the name of the dealer/collector.
2. Style and Place of Origin:
Foliage represents a dominant element and resemblance to the Devi Mahatmya folio as pointed out by Beach (1992, 206, figs 162,163) is clearly noticeable. The Devi Mahatmya folio also portrays a similar design of carriage when compared to some of the Tularam folios. However, to confirm the location of Surat, further comparisons with other folios from the Devi Mahatmya series as well as textiles from early 18th century Surat will be necessary. Additionally, a similar foliage pattern is seen to emerge in 15th-century Devasano Pado Kalpasutra borders as well as interspersed in narrative scenes, and therefore simply motifs cannot be relied on for accurate dating. This does, however, corroborate the Gujarati origin of the Tularam folios. Also, certain features such as figures in profile, hand gestures, short, stocky male figures, the attire of the cowherds, jewelry, especially hair ornaments, representation of the baby Krishna, etc are indicative of a Gujarati influence. The one-line inscriptions on the top margin of the folios that describe the scene unfolding beneath are a mixture of old Marwari and Gujarati words.
3. Date: A firm dating needs more research as indicated above. However, based on iconographic features and stylistic vernacular elements, a tentative dating of the mid to late 17th century may be suggested. Some folios such as the verso in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as the Govardhan folio in the Philadelphia Museum of Art appear to be later than the suggested date and maybe early 18th century.
Online Bhagavata Purana resources [Full text]:
English: http://srimadbhagavatam.org/canto10/c10-1-contents.html
Sanskrit: https://sanskritdocuments.org/sanskrit/purana/
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