Cleveland Museum of Art

Leaf from a Romance of Chandrabhanu and Lavanyavati of Upendra Bhanja (Indian, died 1740)

Date: late 1700s
Medium: Charcoal on palm leaf
Culture: Eastern India, Odisha
Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art

This leaf from an 18th-century romance manuscript comes from a section of the book that retells the epic battle between the demon Ravana and the god-hero Rama. The 10-headed multiarmed demon Ravana is the second figure from the right. Rama’s army of monkeys and bears, wielding tree branches and clods of earth, fill the remainder of the leaf. The images were created using a stylus that incised into the palm leaf; charcoal was then rubbed over the leaf and wiped off, leaving only the incised areas in black.

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