Ramayana in Pahari Miniature Painting

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

Page 29

The Rāmāyana In Pahari Miniature Painting
of Basohli and he is believed to have been the nephew of painter Manaku42. Not only the depiction of the figures, but also the conceivement of space and volume remained basically the same even a hundred years later.
Much care seems to have been taken in depicting the demons in the Siege of Lankā series. It appears that all over the Pahari region the painters had a liking for these, as they figure quite often and in phantastic formations in Pahari painting. They appear in two types :
a. with round and flat human race, and
b. with animal-like snout-face.
All the demons have horns, numerous folds on their foreheads, cheeks and throats, large flapping ears, long claw-nails and sharply pointed tusks in the corners of their broad mouths which give always the impression that they are grinning mischieviously.
The palace of Lankā is depicted in two ways, as required by the setting. As fortification it has a high surrounding wall and numerous small windows for shooting arranged alternatively in various rows. As the palace of the king it is richly decorated with turrets, minaretts, roofed projections, pavilions, colourful carpets and manifold draped and heavy curtains. The smoothly curved cupola-roofs with their ends drawn down on the turrets and pavilions, generally called Bangaldar roofs in architecture, appear in earlier miniatures from Basohli and are probably depictions of monuments built by Islamic rulers in the Gangetic plain and Rajasthan.
All through the illustrations of the 'Siege of Lankā series, the landscape is the Trikāta mountain with the mountain-top called Suvela, on which Rāma, his brother Lakşmana, his allies and troops are camping before the actual battle begins. The mountain is indicated by a curved half-circle line which is bordered by a row of trees. The trees are depicted in a manner typical of the style of Guler : ball-like or pyramidical tree-crowns on brown trunks. Occassionally there are the pointed and high-reaching cypresses or the light-green plantains inbetween. Flowering shrubs also appear in the background. This combination of trees is also used to depict the dense jungle, surrounding Lankā.
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