POSSIBLY NURPUR OR BAHU, PUNJAB HILLS, EARLY 18TH CENTURY

On the first day of the battle of Lanka, Indrajit despatched the vanara armies of Sugriva. Impatient to avenge his father and brother's death he called for Rama and Lakshmana to come forth on the battlefield. Using a powerful weapon consisting of a multitude of snakes he shackled and subdued them. Both fell to the ground unable to move or breathe. Hanuman, the monkey general, called upon Garuda, Vishnu's vehicle, to intervene and free the two brothers from their reptilian bonds.

The ambitious project of the Shangri Ramayana included several illustrations of this episode in the fourth book known as the Lankakanda or Yuddhakanda. For another illustration of this same episode in the Lankakanda from the Shangri Ramayana see Andrew Topsfield Ed., In the Realm of Gods and Kings: Arts of India, London, 2004, no.49, pp. 130-31). A further folio from the same Shangri Ramayana series was sold at Christie's New York, 19 March 2013, lot 309.