Ramayana in Pahari Miniature Painting

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

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The Rāmāyaṇa In Pahari Miniature Painting
leaves of a Rāmāyaṇa which are kept in the Museum für Indische Kunst (West Berlin) relate the story in a pleasant but slightly stale and uninvolving mood. However, the incidents are depicted with much care and minute observation, for example illustration no. 55 Ravana is slaughtered, his wives are coming to the battle-field with their arms raised high as sign of their mourning. The same picture also narrates four more incidents: Rama encountering a warrior, also with raised hands (may-be Indrajit, Ravana's son realizing the defeat of his father); Rama and Lakṣmaṇa surrounded by their monkey-leaders; Vibhisana and numerous monkeyheros greeting Rama and Lakṣmana. On top of the picture Indra is seen leaving the place of action on his elephant Airavata. The entries in the catalogue of the Berlin Museum do not give detailed clue regarding the origin, place of production, or the date of acquisition. It is suggested that these leaves could have been a product of Mandi and belong to the middle of the 19th century. These miniatures depict scenes from Tulasidāsa's Rāmacaritamānasa. The typical Mandi features of this period are trees in which all the leaves are drawn separately; massive bodily figures, especially of the monkeys; landscape made of hilly layers next to or on top of each other; facial type with thin, long-drawn eyes in a Kangra manner; and the "fondness for jagged shapes, pale colour and angular rhythms" of Sajnu's style44. These features also appear in the illustrations to this Rāmāyaṇa. May-be these leaves have been executed in the school of Sajnu. Two leaves which most probably belong to this same series are kept in Chandigarh Museum (no. E-75 and E-76).45 They depict Rama and Lakṣmaṇa camping along with the bear- and monkey-army on the seashore, while four godly figures approach them with offerings from the waves of the ocean (no. E-75) (ill. 63) and the battle between the monkeys and the demons, most prominently the duel between the monkey-hero Angada and the demon Vajradanta in various positions, like Angada rushing with a tree in his upraised hands towards Vajradanta, Angada beating him with the tree and cutting off his head (no. E-76) (ill. 62). One similar single leaf, depicting a scene from the Rāmāyana, is kept in the Victoria & Albert Museum (London). But some of the details are so different that it cannot be counted without doubts with the Berlin miniatures. A striking difference is the formation of the rocks and the flower-ornamentation on the brim in the London picture.
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