Ramayana in Pahari Miniature Painting

Author(s): Jutta Jain
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

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The Rāmāyana In Pahari Miniature Painting
revealed a total number of 40 miniatures belonging to this mentioned Rāmāyaṇa series.
There is another interesting series of Rāmāyana leaves which is not yet known much. This series has a close resemblance to style of painter Manaku. He is believed to have descended from Guler and to have lived in the area of Basohli in the early part of the 18th century. The most famous and important piece of work by this painter is the Gita Govinda series in a Basohli style. It has a colophon with the date corresponding to A.D. 1730 and mentions the name Manaku who is believed to be the executing painter. Due to its detailed colophon this Gita Govinda series has attained a key position in comparing and dating other works of a similar style. Through stylistic and comparative analysis with the Gita Govinda, the latter Rāmāyaṇa series has been given the date of ca. A.D. 1720, i.e. about a decadé earlier than the Gita Govinda set 24.
It is interesting to note that the Rāmāyana series of ca. A.D. 1720 illustrates only the third chapter of the Rāmāyana, the aranyakānda, which narrates the events of Rāma, Laksmana and Sitā in the forest. Recently nine leaves depicting scenes from the sundarakānda, the fifth book narrating the search of Rāma and his monkeycompanions for Sitā, came to light. In style, format and the type of the script in the inscriptions these leaves come very close to the leaves of the aranyakāņda. The leaves of the Siege of Lanka' series, however, are illustrations to the sixth book, the yuddhakanda, narrating the battle between the armies of Rāma and Rāvana. Both these series are rather similar in theme, concept, colour-scheme, style, drafting of the figures and narrative details.
The Rāmāyaṇa Series of ca. 1720
The Rāmāyana series of ca. A.D. 1720 and the Gita Govinda series play an important role in Pahari Painting, as they show the development of a specific style, the style of Basohli painting, within a period of about ten to fifteen years. They reveal, how Pahari painting has been influenced by the paintings from Northern India and the Moghul court24, One can observe in the sequence of these and other related series a slowly increasing tendency towards more naturalism in the figures, in the expression of the faces and in the realistic depiction of the landscape.
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