An illustration from a Markendeya Purana series: Jaimini questioning the sage Markandeya Mahamuni at a hermitage Kangra, circa 1770-80


gouache and gold on paper, red border 204 x 272 mm.
|One of the key features of the Markandeya Purana is the use of story-telling, or intellectual enquiry, as a framing device for the main narrative. The starting point of the narrative of just under seven thousand verses, or 137 chapters, is the visit of Jaimini to the sage Markandeya, in order to address some questions raised by the epic poem, the Mahabharata. Various episodes are framed by these interludes, including the Devi Mahatmya, which constitutes chapters 81-93, a self-contained text glorifying the Goddess, Devi.The depiction of the knotted trees trunks supporting thin branches and delicate leaves are consistent with the famed 'Kangra' Bhagavata Purana in the National Museum, New Delhi and the Dogra Art Gallery: see W. G. Archer, Indian Paintings in the Punjab Hills, London 1973, vol. I, pp. 293-295, no. 36 (i-vii), vol. II, pp. 210-212, nos. 36(i-vii).