Important Notice

MEWAR, CIRCA 1770
Gouache on paper heightened with gold
Image: 3.5 x 9 in (8.8 x 22.8 cm)
Folio: 4 x 9.5 in (10.1 x 24.1 cm)

NON-EXPORTABLE REGISTERED ANTIQUITY

PROVENANCE
The Tandan Collection


Three scenes unfold in this pictorial narration of events from the Ramayana. On the left, a prince has awoken to receive a band of musicians. Beside them is a celestial boat, possibly the pushpakavimana which Ravana uses to kidnap Sita, and also features later in the epic to transport Rama and his which Ravana uses to kidnap Sita, and also features later in the epic to transport Rama and his attendants in the lower chamber. The architecture is characteristic of forts seen in Mewar in the eighteenth century. On the right, Hanuman throws rocks into the sea to build a bridge to Lanka. In the background is another pushpakavimana.

"The Ramayana-that great epic, and one of the most revered texts of India-is filled with passages of tremendous power and beauty, which imprints themselves indelibly on the heart of the reader or listener....Episodes from the epic and remembered, and its values continue to be cited, even in our mundane daily lives. In countless ways, the text lives on. Everyone-each reader, each devotee, each painter-naturally brings their own understanding, their own utsaha, or energy, to the text. There are a series of paintings devoted to the Ramayana in all kinds of styles: Rajasthani, Pahari, Mysore, even Mughal. And what the painters do with it is a subject of great fascination: how and why each of them focuses on specific episodes, interprets situations, penetrates characters or empathizes with them." (Goswamy, Close Encounters, p. 249)

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