Ramayana in Pahari Miniature Painting

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

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The Rämāyana In Pahari Miniature Painting
The Rāmāyaṇa of ca. 1720 and the 'Siege of Larka' series.
The leaves of the Rāmāyana of ca. 1720 and the 'Siege of Lanka' series display remarkable similarities. The most striking feature in both these series is the common horizontal format with the shining red and broad border. The iconography of the figures of Rāma, Laksmana, Sita, Rāvana and the demons are similar in both the series, especially the rather stout bodies of Rāma and Lakşmana and monkeys with their massive legs. As third feature of similarity one could mention is the colour-palette. In both the series it is powerful, bright and fascinating, the colours being used in their pure and unmixed forms : the bright dominating yellow of the palace of Lankā or of the background of the scenes; the deep blackish-blue of the body of Rāma and some of the demons, or of the sky in the background; the pure white of the body of Laksmana, Hanumāna or the demons and monkeys; the green and dark-green in manifold shadings for trees and vegetation.
The figures of Rāma in the Rāmāyaṇa of ca. 1720 and the 'Siege of Lankā leaves are resembling each other in their dark-blue body-colour marked by a sharp outline of the face with a pointed nose, recessing chin, long-drawn, almond-shaped eyes and a high and prominent, evenly drawn half-circle line of the eyebrows. The similarity is also revealed in other minute details, like in the earrings of Rāma : two small shining white balls joined by a half-circle wire which goes through the earhole. Besides Rāma and Lakşmana, Hanumāna and other monkey-leaders wear these earrings throughout these Rāmāyaṇa leaves in the same fashion. Another comparable feature in both the series is the peculiar shape of Hanumāna's eyes : evenly shaped arches cut at the lower side by a slightly upward curved line, with big eyeballs in the middle. The eye is roundish and compact and not longish like Rāma's. In some cases, however, Hanumāna too, possesses the longish eye shape. The playful and humerous actions of monkeys and bears while roaming around in the woods (in the case of the aranyakända) or awaiting the battle (in the case of the yuddhakānda) display the same source of inspiration : the monkeys climb up trees, pluck fruits, jump down, chat with each other with heads inclined towards each other in a very natural way. In one leaf of the Rietberg Museum, they are engaged in playful erotic postures (see ill. 19). In the 'Siege of Lanka' series the monkeys are shown climbing up the fort walls of Lankā in unconcealed joy to start the
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