Lot 161
A PAIR OF ILLUSTRATED SCROLLS TO THE 'VESSANTARA JATAKA'
BURMA, CIRCA 1845
Auction: 09 December 2026 from 14:00 GMT
Description
watercolour on paper, black margin rules, each scene inscribed in black ink in Sinhalese with faint English translations in pencil below, the first scroll, from left to right, depicts four scenes beginning with a large carriage drawn by four deer in which sit the King and his consort, each with a child on their lap, the second scene depicts the couple speaking to an attendant behind the deer, in front of the deer the same couple hold their daughter and son, followed by a scene under a canopy where the couple are seated with their children, to the right of them what appears to be a high priest advising them; the second scroll depicts four scenes beginning with an exiled figure of the prince dressed in a white loin cloth with very few possessions welcomed by a tribesman in a forest, followed by the latter showing the prince the way to the forest hermitage, the third scene shows the prince in discussions with the Hermitage tribesmen, and ending with a scene of the prince sitting high up in a tree, whilst his two children are taken over by the forest tribes people
Dimensions
each 22cm x 57cm, framed 36.4cm x 71.5cm
Provenance
Acquired from 25 Blythe Road, 11 November 2015, lot 154.
Private London collection.
Footnote
These two scrolls from the story of Vessantara Jātaka illustrate the moment King Vessantara sacrifices his kingdom, abandoning his earthly wealth in addition to his two children, exiling himself to a forest, in order to demonstrate the Buddhist ideal of boundless generosity, before being reunited with his loved ones and restored to his kingdom.
For another scroll from the same series in the San Diego Museum of Art, formerly in the collection of Edwin Binney 3rd, see 1990.1478. This scroll has the same inscriptions in Sinhalese along with the same handwritten English translations below.