Oblong octavo (leaf dimensions 95 x 150 mm; text panel 70 x 115 mm). 366 leaves overall with 6 coloured illustrations. Cardboard binding reinforced with a thin red linen and pale (worn and cracked) top layer. Linen spine. In good condition, some water staining throughout, and usual wear due to time and usage. Sanskrit text arranged in a five-line single column in black ink, with verse separators as a pair of vertical red strokes, and written in a thick conventional Kashmiri style. A thick orange band frames the text panel, which is encompassed, in turn, by thin red line and black perimeter lines. Dialogue shifts are also marked in red ink. Each leaf is marked by the beginning syllable of the relative poem's title. The textural decoration set succeeds in giving a neat and balanced impression of sobriety. The Sanskrit compound term Pancaratnam refers to the most revered quintet of tales from the old venerable Hindu poem 'Mahabharata' (the Bhagavad, the Visnusahasranama, the Bhismastavaraja, the Anusmrti, the Gajendramoksa). Coloured plates: 1. Depicting Krisna and Arjuna in a war chariot at Kuruksetra field during the first phase of the battle. 2. Visnu showing himself in a theophany (an appearance of God) as the Visvarupa ("He who has all forms"), a symbol of the deepest state of reality, beyond its various appearances. 3. The Visnusahasranama. Visnu as 'Narayana' ("THe Man whose abode are the waters"), seen resting on the primeval snake 'Adisesa', while his Divine Consort Laksmi (Mother Goddess in Hinduism) massages his feet. 4. The Bhismastavaraja. Depicting the dying warrior and sage Bhisma on the 'arrows bed'. 5. The Anusmrti. Depicting the philosophical dialogue between Bhisma and Yudhisthira. 6. The Gajendramoksa. Lord Visnu saving the Elephant King Gajendra.