Tales from the Mahābhārata, Persian manuscript on paper, Kashmir, mid-nineteenth century. 208 numbered leaves. Leaf dimensions: mm. 280 x 190; text panel: 213 x 122 mm. 31 lines per page, written in a nastaˤlīq script in black ink. Some titles and marked in red ink. most leaves framed in red and orange, five illuminated headings and 40 miniatures in colours and gold executed in the traditional Kashmiri style. Some spaces arranged for miniatures were left blank, contemporary hand-painted boards, backed in tan leather, doubleurs painted with delicate narcissus flowers. The manuscript is in very good condition. This text is a Persian translation of parts of the great Indian epics Mahābhārata, most probably an abridged copy of the Razmnāmeh, a translation of the Mahābhārata commissioned by the Mughal emperor Akbar.