The Illustrated Manuscript of Iskandar Nama: Reminiscence of an Intercultural Dialogue in Medieval Bengal

Since time immemorial India played a very determining role in the economic activities of South and South East Asian archipelago. Geographically being located in between East and West Asia, its vast stretch of littoral have always been used by wayfarers as a business parlour for transshipment of their goods and commodities. In the long run these economic activities helped in building up very close cultural relation between South East Asia and the West Asian countries. The imprints of these cultural relations were felt in the temples of Ankorvat and the Buddhist temples of Borobudur. In the same way Iskandar Nama, the only illustrated manuscript of Sultanate Bengal, commissioned by Nusrat Shah in the year 1531-32AD also bears the imprints of intercultural relations in medieval South East Asia. Thus, the purpose of my paper is to show that how we can use this illustrated manuscript in understanding the cultural relations in medieval South East Asia. Stylistically, the manuscript has both the influence of Persian and Chinese painting. Apart from these stylistic features, the paper that was used, the colours that illuminated the illustrations, all speaks about the technological development and its diffusion in different parts of Indian sub-continent.