Jaimini’s treatise on the predictive strand of Hindu astrology translated into Kannada, probably written in Mysore, and acquired by George IV when Prince of Wales.

The ancient author Jaimini (c. 4th century BC) developed an astrological system of creating horoscopes to determine events and their timings which he recorded in this text, originally composed in Sanskrit.

Stylistically, this manuscript forms a pair with another Kannada volume in the Royal Collection (RCIN 1005094). They are both written on the same size and type of high quality gold flecked paper. Both have frontispieces illuminated in a traditionally Islamic style but in a distinctly southern Indian idiom. The calligraphy, in telugu script (read left to right), reflects the hybrid nature of Tipu’s court since it is written with a slight slant, presumably by someone more accustomed to writing in Persian.

 It is possible that they are two surviving volumes from a much larger set of texts in Kannada written at the court of Mysore. Both were rebound in the early nineteenth century in European red velvet covers with neoclassical style gold tooling.