INDIA, BIKANER, CIRCA 1750

Details

Rama and Laxman with defeated Ravana
India, Bikaner, circa 1750
The victorious brothers to the left with Rama holding his brahmastra and Laxman behind, carrying bows, arrows and katars, both dressed in green and pink with bejeweled crowns, with Sugriva, Vibhisana and Angada follow behind carrying tree tops and also wearing crowns, two horned demons fleeing to the right while Ravana lies dead in the foreground, his severed donkey head next to his ten heads at the culmination of the fierce battle at Lanka, the city in the background across the lotus-filled moat
Opaque pigments and gold on wasli
7½ x 5 3/8 in. (19 x 13.7 cm.), folio

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Lot Essay

Regardless of his many vices, Ravana was highly learned, well-versed in the Vedas and scriptures and an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva. He was blessed by Lord Brahma with immortality and his ten heads represent the multiplicity of his accomplishments. Nonetheless, his deeds were governed by an oscillating frame of mind, led by evil he acted against his sagely descent and some visual traditions append over his ten heads the eleventh head of a donkey to symbolize this demeanor. For one such example see Christie's New York, 20 March 2012, lot 218.

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