This manuscript comprises a collection of four different texts. The
main text is the Bhagavadgītā ("Song of the Lord"), a part of the
Mahābhārata epic, book 6, which consists of 18 chapters, written
here in Devanāgarī in a Kashmiri-influenced style (f. 1v-165r).
It is one of the most copied texts in the Hindu tradition and
survives in a huge number of manuscripts. Painted portraits of
Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna alternate in opening its 18 chapters. The
Bhagavadgītā is preceded by the Prayāgatīrthasnānasaṃkalpa,
apadoddhāraṇastotra (V2r-V4v),"a promise to take bath at
Prayāga (Allahabad)", and followed by the
Pañcavaktrahanumatkavaca (N1v-N7v), a protective mantra of
Hanuman, and finally the Stavarāja (N8r-N8v), a "king of praises",
serving also as a sort of colophon to the whole collection of these
miscellaneous texts. These three subsidiary texts are all written
in common Devanāgarī script. A partly readable note dated 29
August 1781 identifies the manuscript as a “prayer book of a
bramin [i.e. brahmin]” given to the unidentified possessor of the
manuscript “on his departure from India” (V1r).
Rights
e-codices - Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland
