Ramayana in Pahari Miniature Painting

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

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The Rämāyana In Pahari Miniature Painting
fight with the demons or throwing stones and trees at their enemies. Their energetic movements and their lively expressions of childish enjoyment are common in both the series. This can be specially marked in the expression of the monkey peeping out of the tree in illustration no. 19 from the Rietberg Museum and no. 30 from the "Siege of Lankā' series.
The details of the setting in the landscape are also similar: the long and thin pine-trees alternating with bright, light-green plantains (some with fruits and flower-bunches); the trees with strong stems are divided into three or even more partitions and having broad crowns of leaves and sometimes also flowering. This setting is very typical of the landscape in Guler and appears in this very manner in the miniatures of the Guler style. The ocean in front of the Triküța mountain and the island of Lankā are conceived in the same way with many parallel lines of smooth waves in which large fish are swimming. Various strange animals and draggon-like monsters can be seen peeping out (cf. ill. no. 18 and 'Siege of Lanka' no. 22, 24, 35) Lastly, the double or tripple ornamental bands on the horns of the demons can be mentioned as common features throught these miniatures.
These similarities could indicate that both the Rāmāyana series were created in the same religious and artistic atmosphere. Several points, however, go to prove that there must have been a difference of time in the completion of both the series. The most obvious distinguishing point is the difference in format : The leaves of the Rāmāyaṇa series of ca. 1720 are smaller than the extraordinarily large-sized leaves of the 'Siege of Lankā' series.
A break within a seemingly extensive series occurs occasionally in Pahari miniature painting. The Bhāgavata Purāņa series of Manaku of about A.D. 1740 was begun, in the initial chapters, on a slightly smaller format, but was never finished. Only drawings illustrate the sixth chapter of the same book. What is remarkable is that there is a series of illustrations to the tenth and eleventh chapters of the Bhāgavata Purāņa, which are slightly larger in size, but very similar in style. It might have been that due to some reason the extensive project was left incomplete and when the successor of the first painter, may-be a son of Manaku, started the work again,
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