The Bride with Mourners Carrying the Bridegroom’s Coffin

This folio from Walters manuscript W.649 depicts a scene from Suz va gudaz. Overcome with grief, the young Hindu woman accompanies her bridegroom's coffin to the funeral pyre and decides to commit sati (or self immolation), to illustrate the poem written by Naw'i Khabushani (d. 1019 AH/AD 1610). The painting was produced in Iran, by Muhammad 'Ali Mashhadi in 1068 AH/AD 1657. According to the colophon, Ibn Sayyid Murad al-Husayni copied the manuscript for the painter Muhammad 'Ali, the "Mani of the time," as a "souvenir." The fact that the manuscript was produced for one of the most prolific artists of 17th-century Iran makes it a highly significant document. Source and folio description from Walters Art Museum