This page comes from a well-known set of Pahari illustrations of the Ramayana epic. It relates in colorful terms the story of the abduction of the beautiful Sita, Rama's wife, by the demon Ravana, the ruler of Lanka. He kept her captive until she was rescued by Rama, with great assistance from the monkey-god, Hanuman, with his army. Sita, who represents feminine virtue, is shown here on the right in the garden of a fortified castle of Ravana, surrounded by a moat and a high wall. She faces her many-armed and -headed abductor, accompanied by his wives, guarded by several demons. In agreement with the method of continuous narration, popular in Indian paintings, Ravana is shown again on the left, seated inside his castle, in conference with his demons. This famous set of unusually large paintings, many unfinished, is known through several surviving pages and many more partially colored or uncolored drawings. Most are in the collection of the Museum of Fine Art, Boston, while individual paintings are in theMetropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the British Museum in London, a private collection, and this page in Cleveland. The Prince of Wales Museum in Bombay has nineteen uncolored drawings from this set. The Cleveland page has a dull-red border with some damage to its left side and lower border that partially extends into the water of the moat. There is also some loss of pigment in front of the Sita figure. S.C.
cxd
This page comes from a well-known set of Pahari illustrations of the Ramayana epic. It relates in colorful terms the story of the abduction of the beautiful Sita, Rama's wife, by the demon Ravana, the ruler of Lanka. He kept her captive until she was rescued by Rama, with great assistance from the monkey-god, Hanuman, with his army. Sita, who represents feminine virtue, is shown here on the right in the garden of a fortified castle of Ravana, surrounded by a moat and a high wall. She faces her many-armed and -headed abductor, accompanied by his wives, guarded by several demons. In agreement with the method of continuous narration, popular in Indian paintings, Ravana is shown again on the left, seated inside his castle, in conference with his demons. This famous set of unusually large paintings, many unfinished, is known through several surviving pages and many more partially colored or uncolored drawings. Most are in the collection of the Museum of Fine Art, Boston, while individual paintings are in theMetropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the British Museum in London, a private collection, and this page in Cleveland. The Prince of Wales Museum in Bombay has nineteen uncolored drawings from this set. The Cleveland page has a dull-red border with some damage to its left side and lower border that partially extends into the water of the moat. There is also some loss of pigment in front of the Sita figure. S.C.
Context
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