Painting

This page is from a manuscript of the Razmnama, or Book of War, copied in the late 16th century at the Mughal court. It was the Persian translation commissioned by the emperor Akbar of the Sanskrit epic text, the Mahabharata. Here, the sage Vyasa accompanied by three disciples in his hermitage, observes his son, Shuka, approaching them through the air like a ball of fire.The painting was purchased for the museum from the executors of the late J. C. French with the assistance of the National Art Collections Fund in 1955.