Ramayana in Pahari Miniature Painting

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

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The Rāmāyana In Pahari Miniature Painting
the pavilion in its outer appearance already gives an allusion to depth, while the interior with the balcony of the princely lady looks, as though screened on paper. The Persian Rāmāyana just mentioned is about 30 years later and is more successful in showing depth and space through a device which can be noticed in most illustrations of the Akbar period. The same device can be discerned in Pahari miniatures of more than hundred years later, for example the Rāmāyana of ca. 1720 and the Gita Govinda series in a Basohli style as in its early phase this style owes some features to Moghul miniatures. The device of creating volume on a two-dimensional plain is the depiction of a high wall on the lower border of the miniature, on top of which the scenery is placed. The painter is not concerned with the actual practicability of this scenery. The high wall (in the case of the Rāmāyana the wall around the palace of Lankā or the surrounding wall of the Asoka grove) does not prevent the view inside the courtyard, as in reality it would do. The events behind the walls are laid open to the spectators by showing the scene or scenes (sometimes two or three different plots) on top of the wall. This view from above into the inner courtyard can be very clearly seen in illustrations 24, 25, 26, 27, etc.
Perspective diminution is not used as a pictorial device in this series. The same feature can be observed throughout the early Indian miniature painting, for example early Malwa miniatures, in which rooms, houses, gardens, etc. are shown purely in architectural elevation, while the figures inside are depicted on the same plane, as if these were projected on a screen. The 'Shangri' Rāmāyaṇa of the early phase of Pahari painting shows this kind of easiness in rendering volume, although first steps in realizing distance and perspective can be noticed in illustration 47. In the Siege of Lankā' series belonging to still an early phase but already pointing towards a transition, the lack of perspective conception is most obvious in the leaves depicting the battle. The fighters attacking in clusters or engaged in duels are piled up one on top of another, or next to each other, as the space would allow it. The intermediate free areas are filled with crowds of monkeys, horses, killed warriors and demons (see ills. 29, 37, 40, etc) There is no attempt at any spacial arrangement. It is simply a two-dimensional depiction of the manifold facets of the war.
In this series the persons and their costumes are of a remarkably careful and
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