Sritattvanidhi

The Sritattvanidhi (Śrītattvanidhi) ("The Illustrious Treasure of Realities") is a treatise written in the 19th century in Karnataka on the iconography and iconometry of divine figures in South India. One of its sections, includes instructions for and illustrations of 122 postures, making it by far the most elaborate text on asanas in existence before the twentieth century.

The Sritattvanidhi is attributed to the then Maharaja of Mysore, Krishnaraja Wodeyar III (b. 1794 - d. 1868).The Maharaja was a great patron of art and learning and was himself a scholar and writer. There are around 50 works ascribed to him. The first page of the Sritattvanidhi attributes authorship of the work to the Maharaja himself:

May the work Sri Tattvanidi, which is illustrated and contains secrets of mantras and which is authored by King Sri Krishna Raja Kamteerava, be written without any obstacle. Beginning of Shaktinidhi.

Martin-Dubost's review of the history of this work says that the Maharaja funded an effort to put together in one work all available information concerning the iconography and iconometry of divine figures in South India. He asked that a vast treatise be written, which he then had illustrated by miniaturists from his palace.

The resulting illuminated manuscript, which he entitled the Sritattvanidhi, brings together several forms of Shiva, Vishnu, Skanda, Ganesha, different goddesses, the nine planets (navagraha), and the eight protectors of the cardinal points (aṣṭadikpālas). The work is in nine parts, each called a nidhi ("treasure"). The nine sections are:

An original copy of this colossal work is available in the Oriental Research Institute, University of Mysore, Mysore. Another copy is in the possession of the present scion of the Royal Family of Mysore, Sri Srikanta Datta Narsimharaja Wadiyar. An unedited version of this work with only text in devanagari script was published about a century ago by Khemraj Krishna das of Sri Venkateshvar Steam Press, Bombay (Mumbai).

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