Ramayana (2003)

Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana had lived for nearly fourteen summers in the wilderness when they walked down the southern slopes of the Vindhya Mountains and into the Dandaka forest that covered central India. They were approached by a hag, gnawing on a raw bone. “I am Surpanakha, sister of Ravana, and I have chosen you Rama for my husband.� When Rama politely told her he was already married to the lovely Sita, Surpanakha lashed out for Sita with her claw-like hands. Lakshmana caught her with his gold-handled knife and cut off her ears. Enraged and humiliated, Surpanakha raced back to her brother’s palace. She told Ravana of the great feats of Rama, and of Sita’s beauty. Ravana dismissed Rama as a mere troublesome human, but took a great interest in Sita and wanted her for himself. He went to his uncle the rakshasa (demon), Maricha, and asked him to transform himself into a Golden Deer, and lure Rama away from Sita, so that he, Ravana, could charm her into becoming his Queen. Maricha eventually agreed to help the nagging, obsessed Ravana.

This manuscript leaf picks up the story with the appearance of the Golden Deer. Rama and Sita are playing a game of Parcheesi when the deer comes into view. “Oh Rama,� says Sita, “please catch it for me. It is so beautiful.� Lakshmana was immediately suspicious, but Rama followed the deer that led him further and further away from Sita. When Rama caught sight of the deer in a clearing, he drew his bow. As Rama’s arrow pierced its heart, the deer changed back into its real demon form. With his dying breath, Maricha feigned Rama’s voice and shouted, “Help me.� Rama grasped the trick, turned, and ran toward home.

Lakshmana and Sita heard the cry, and Lakshmana again sensed demons at work. Sita, however, believed that Rama was in distress. She ordered and then shamed Lakshamana into going to find him. Lakshman drew a circle around Sita, and told her not to cross the line. He then vanished into the forest.

Ravana had his opportunity. In the lower register of the picture we see him in the form of a holy man approaching Sita to ask for food. She lifts her foot beyond the line to give him an offering. He begins to seduce her with sweet words, and when he gets nowhere—she speaks only of Rama—he reveals himself, picks her up screaming, and sets off for Lanka. The old, loyal Vulture King, Jataku, (seen in the manuscript as a white bird) hears Sita’s cries and attacks Ravana in an attempt to free her. Ravana, however, succeeds in cutting off Jataku’s wings and the bird falls to the earth dead. At the far right of the lower register of this manuscript leaf, we see a monkey offering the imprisoned Sita a ring, but that takes us ahead of our story.

October 2005
Domains of Wonder
These two pages are from a Hindu text devoted to Krishna (an incarnation of the god Vishnu) as a youth. The artists paint flat, angular figures on a red background, revealing a continuity of the centuries-old style most frequently seen in Jain manuscripts of western India. The stories are well-known, and only terse visual clues are required to reference complex plots.

SASAPA December 2014
Episodes from the Story of Rama
Folio from the Praise for Krishna, the Young Lord of the Cowherds (Balagopalastuti)
Western India; ca. 1450–75 Opaque watercolor on paper
Representing an early phase of book painting, this page comes from western India, and takes the form of the long, narrow palm-leaf manuscripts that had been the tradition for centuries in the subcontinent. The painting style is also very traditional, with flat, angular figures
on a background of a single, unmodulated color.
Several scenes from a story about the good prince Rama and his wife Sita unfold across the page’s two registers. In order to capture the lovely Sita, king Ravana transforms into a Golden Deer who appears before Rama and Sita while they play parcheesi. Rama goes to capture the
deer for his wife; Ravana then appears as a holy man begging Sita for food. He grabs her and sets off for his island home of Lanka. The Vulture King (shown as a white bird) tries to save Sita but is felled by Ravana. Sita is imprisoned on Lanka, but in the last scene of the page, a monkey brings Rama’s ring to Sita so that she knows help is on the way.
Edwin Binney 3rd Collection, 1990.196

Gallery 9 Label Dec 2014
Hinduism and Hindu Art
Hinduism and its sacred texts developed over hundreds of years, rather than being founded at a specific moment in time by a single figure. The religion is based on the belief that souls are locked in an endless cycle of rebirth until release from the cycle is attained by one’s own actions and beliefs (karma). This is obtained through worship of and a close personal connection to a deity. In Hindu belief, the principal deities are two male gods, Shiva and Vishnu, and a female Great Goddess, each of whom takes on many forms and incarnations.
Hindu rituals are performed at a temple that has an inner sanctum called the garbhagriha (literally “womb chamber�) housing the icon of the deity to whom the temple is dedicated. Directly above the divine image in the garbhagriha is the temple’s towering roof, which represents the heavenly mountain abode of the gods. The exterior of the temple is typically composed of multiple projections that may be understood as representing the energy radiating from the sanctum. Sculpture covers the surface of these walls, including depictions of semi-divine and auspicious figures along with the principal god.
Last Updated: 9/5/2017