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Lot Essay
Ravana prepares for war against Rama, with the full support of his court save for his brother Vibhishana. Vibhishana has been taking notice to the bad omens around Lanka since Sita’s captivity and advises Ravana to return Sita and pacify tensions with Rama and his army. After Ravana’s severe and continuous rebukes of Vibhishana’s advice, Vibhishana defects from Lanka to join Rama’s forces. In the present painting, Vibhishana is completing his leap over the ocean; Sugiriva, naturally distrustful of the defector, interrogates Vibhishana as he hovers above the swirling eddies. Hanuman, convinced of Vibhishana’s honest intentions, welcomes him to shore and brings him to Rama. Vibhishana falls at Rama’s feet, telling him of all the mistreatment at Ravana’s court and describes in detail all of the defenses and strategies of the Lanka military. He also clues Rama into a solution for crossing the ocean: summoning the Lord of the Water. Rama does so by firing flaming arrows into the sea and Lord of the Water, along with the river goddesses Ganga and Indus, emerges from the sea to meet Rama. The continuous narrative of the scenes are divided by troops of bear and monkey soldiers, sitting between the hillocks and armed with thick branches. A complete military band of simian musicians performs in the foreground.
This painting represents a scene from the fifth book, the Sundarakanda, of the Ramayana. There are only fifteen known paintings of this style, all from the same book, suggesting the group may have been commissioned to fill a gap in an existing series. It would appear that the group likely comes from a progression of Chamba series first commissioned in 1760 and discontinued in 1764 after the death of Raja Umed Singh; the series was then continued about fifteen years later, circa 1780-5, in a series for the third book, the Arayanakanda, which advances the style closer to the present series. The present chapter is attributed to circa 1800-1810, with consideration to stylistic characteristics that can be attributed to Garhwal workshops that permeated into Chamba around the Gurkha conquest of 1804. For further discussion on the series, illustrated in full, see S. Ray and J. P. Losty, 15 Paintings Depicting the Adventures of Hanuman on Lanka from the Ramayana, London, 2016.
This painting represents a scene from the fifth book, the Sundarakanda, of the Ramayana. There are only fifteen known paintings of this style, all from the same book, suggesting the group may have been commissioned to fill a gap in an existing series. It would appear that the group likely comes from a progression of Chamba series first commissioned in 1760 and discontinued in 1764 after the death of Raja Umed Singh; the series was then continued about fifteen years later, circa 1780-5, in a series for the third book, the Arayanakanda, which advances the style closer to the present series. The present chapter is attributed to circa 1800-1810, with consideration to stylistic characteristics that can be attributed to Garhwal workshops that permeated into Chamba around the Gurkha conquest of 1804. For further discussion on the series, illustrated in full, see S. Ray and J. P. Losty, 15 Paintings Depicting the Adventures of Hanuman on Lanka from the Ramayana, London, 2016.