Ravana addresses Sita in the garden of Lanka, from Chapters 53 and 54 of the Aranya Kanda (Book of the Forest) of a Ramayana (Rama’s Journey)

Cleveland Museum of Art

Ravana addresses Sita in the garden of Lanka, from Chapters 53 and 54 of the Aranya Kanda (Book of the Forest) of a Ramayana (Rama’s Journey)

Date
c. 1725
Medium
Gum tempera, gold, and silver on paper
Culture
Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
Department
Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Institution
Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID
142315

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

The viewer is cut off from Lanka by the surrounding sea and the city’s golden walls in this expansive composition probably intended for courtly display This choice of perspective cleverly emphasizes the captivity of the Sita, faithful wife of the hero Rama. She kneels beneath an ashoka tree, guarded by demonesses. The princess’s abductor, the 10-headed and 20-armed demon lord of Lanka, Ravana, appears twice in the image. In the palace, he consults his council of minions. At the right, he hears Sita’s refusal to marry him. Ravana neither harms her, nor sets her free. Ravana’s wives take the forms of beautiful women and fearsome demonesses.

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Provenance & credit

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Credit line
Gift of George P. Bickford
Provenance
Raja Raghunath Singh of Guler | Ananda K. Coomaraswamy [1877–1947] | ?–1966: George P. Bickford [1901–1991] and Clara Louise Gehring Bickford [1903–1985], Cleveland Heights, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art | 1966–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

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