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Indian Fables in Islamic Art

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Hugo Buchthal
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Extract

Seldom has a work had such world-wide success and been translated into so many languages as the Indian stories and animal fables known as the Panchatantra. In the sixth century of our era they were translated from Sanskrit into Pehlevi. Thence they passed into Arabic; and from the Arabic text, called by Muhammadans the Fables of Bidpai or the Book of Kalila wa Diṁna, were made all those different versions through which these stories were transmitted to the countries of Europe.

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Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 73 , Issue 4 , October 1941 , pp. 317 - 324
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1941

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References

page 317 note 1 Cf. Pantschatantra: fuenf Buecher indischer Fabeln. Aus dem Sanskrit uebersetzl v. Theodor Benfey, 2 vols., 1859Google Scholar.

page 317 note 2 Hitti, Philip K., History of the Arabs, 2nd ed., 1940, p. 308Google Scholar.

page 318 note 1 SirArnold, Thomas, Painting in Islam, 1928, pp. 45 f.Google Scholar

page 318 note 2 On this and the following paragraph, of. Buohthal, H., “Hellenistic Miniatures in early Islamic Manuscripts,” in Ars Islamica, 7, 1940, pp. 125–133Google Scholar.

page 319 note 1 MS. arabe 6094, cf. the article mentioned in the preceding note.

page 319 note 2 Cf. Herzfeld, E., “Mschattâ, Hîra, und Bâdiya, Die Mittellaender des Islam und ihre Baukunst,” in Jahrbuch der preussischen Kunatsammlungen, 42, 1921, pp. 141 ff.Google Scholar

page 320 note 1 Cf. Hotter, Kurt, “Die fruehmamlukische Miniaturmalerei,” in Die graphischen Kuenste, 2, 1937, pp. 2 ff.Google Scholar

page 320 note 2 Fig. 1 is a miniature from the earliest Bidpai manuscript preserved, Paris arabe 3465, from the early thirteenth century, cf. Holter, K., “Die islamischen Miniaturhandschriften vor 1350,” in Zeitsehrift f. Bibliothekswesen, 1937, pp. 1 ff., no. 26Google Scholar; Fig. 2 is from a Mamluk copy, dated a.d. 1354, in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, cf. Holter, Miniaturhandschriften, no. 80.

page 320 note 3 Cf. Blochet, E., Musulman Painting, 1929Google Scholar, plates 14 and 18. Plate 14 is again from Paris arabe 3465, plate 18 from a fourteenth century Mamluk copy in Paris, arabe 3467; cf. Holter, Miniaturhandschriften, no. 78.

page 321 note 1 Paris, Bibl. Nat., MS. ano. f. pers. 376. Reproductions of the manuscript so far published are listed in Holter, Miniaturhandschriften, no. 51.

page 322 note 1 Our illustrations show the Fable of the Crows and Owls in Paris arabe 3465 and in a Mongol manuscript, probably written in Tabriz (of. K. Holter, Miniaturhandschriften, no. 63; Kuehnel, E., “A Bidpai manuscript of 1343–4 in Cairo,” in Bulletin of the American Institute for Iranian Art and Archaeology, 5, 1937, pp. 137 ff.Google Scholar).

page 322 note 2 The miniature from the Cairo manuscript reproduced in Kg. 5 shows a cusped arch which seems to derive directly from a miniature in the thirteenth century Bidpai manuscript, cf. H. Buchthal, “‘Hellenistic’ Miniatures,” fig. 31.

page 322 note 3 MS. Paris, Bibl. Nat., anc. f. pers. 377; cf. Blochet, Painting, pls. 66, 67. The right date of this manuscript has for the first time been suggested by Kuehnel, , “A Bidpai Manuscript,” p. 141Google Scholar.

page 322 note 4 Our Fig. 6, again from the Cairo manuscript, should be compared with Shāh-nāmeh miniatures such as Blochet, Painting, pl. 47.

page 323 note 1 Cf. the comparative table of the Panchatantra, versions in The Ocean of Story, ed. Penzer, , vol. v, p. 242Google Scholar.

page 323 note 2 Among illustrated manuscripts, we may cite, for instance, Heidelberg, pal. germ. 84, 85, 466; cf. Wegener, Hans, Beschreibendes Verzeichnis d. deutschen Bilder-Handschriften des spaeten Mittdalters i.d. Heidelberger Universitaetsbibliothek, 1927, pp. 91 ff.Google Scholar; on woodcuts, cf., for instance, Weil, Ernst, Der Ulmer Holzschnitt im 15. Jahrhundert, 1923, pp. 43 ff.Google Scholar

page 324 note 1 Well-known early examples at Barhut; cf. Bachhofer, L., Early Indian Sculpture, 1929, pl. 24 ff.Google Scholar; on medieval frescoes, cf. Rramriseh, Stella, “A Painted Ceiling,” in Journal of the Indian Society of Oriental Art, 7, 1939, pp. 175–182Google Scholar.

page 324 note 2 Cf. Wilkinson, J. V. S., The Lights of Canopus, London, 1929Google Scholar.

page 324 note 3 See note 1, p. 317.