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"Rama and Lakshmana Enter the City of Mithila to Perform in an Archery Contest," Illustrated folio from the “Bharany" Ramayana (The Adventures of Rama)
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Title:"Rama and Lakshmana Enter the City of Mithila to Perform in an Archery Contest," Illustrated folio from the “Bharany" Ramayana (The Adventures of Rama)
Credit Line:Promised Gift of the Kronos Collections, 2015
Object Number:SL.23.2019.1.6
Lead by a majerdomo holding a long staff, Rama and Lakshmana, his brother, are following the crowned Sage Viswamithra, formerly a king, into the walled city of Mithila for an archery contest in which they will take part. During the contest Rama will bend Vishnu’s bow and win the beautiful Sita for his wife. On the right the two brothers, seated in a cart after Rama’s victory, are leaving the city in the company of an enormous retinue of their followers. The Series of more than 100 illustrated folios (1) to which this very fine painting once belonged illustrated the first three books of Valmiki’s Ramayana (“The Adventures of Rama”), an epic poem in Sanskrit of about the fourth century B.C., describing the exploits of Rama, seventh incarnation of Vishnu, in quest of Sita, abducted by Ravana, demon king of Ceylon. (See also cat. nos. 4550, and 63.) Called the “Bharany Ramayana” (after the New Delhi art dealer and collector who once possessed it), the now widely dispersed Series was probably commissioned by Maharaja Sansar Chand (r. 17751823) of Kangra (see cat. no. 81) during the opening years of his reign. Together with the Series illustrating the Gita Govinda of Jayadeva (cat. nos. 7785) and the Series commonly called the “Mody Bhagavata Purana” (now largely in the National Museum, New Delhi), paintings from the “Bharany Ramayana” illustrate the earthly adventures of the seventh and eighth incarnations of the great god Vishnu, and Sansar Chand’s personal heroes, the gods Rama and Krishna. For their delicacy of line and color, and for their sensitivity to nature and human emotion, illustrated folios from these three Series are thought to represent a high point in the painting of India, not just of painting in the Punjab Hills. Paintings from the “Bharany Ramayana” can be divided quite naturally into two broad groups: outdoor scenes in which the fecund landscape plays an important dramatic role, as in 93. paintings from the nearly contemporary Gita Govinda Series (cat. nos. 7785); and architectural scenes, like the present work. These architectural scenes experiment with space, incorporating Indian and European conventions, in a way that is entirely new for painting in the Punjab Hills. In this fine painting, an enormous white wall bifurcates the composition into two quite separate spatial worlds. On the left, Rama, his brother, and their entourage enter the walled city of Mithila. Their spatial envelope is very ad hoc and approximate, yet intelligible. On the right, the two brothers and their enormous retinue are leaving the city. The diminished size of the figures and animals in the distance, receding over a level ground, incorporate lessons poorly learned from European perspective. The two quite different sides of the composition are surprisingly complementary, perhaps because of the uniformly small size of the figures (a characteristic of all paintings from the Series) on both sides, as well as the surface logic of their harmonious configuration.
Collection of C.L. Bharany, New Delhi India; Purchased by Harten & Co. from Sotheby's in 1973; Sold to Kronos Collection from Bonhams 2014
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Divine Pleasures: Painting from India's Rajput Courts—The Kronos Collections," June 13–September 11, 2016.
New York,. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Sita and Rama: The Ramayana in Indian Painting," August 3, 2019–March 7, 2021.
The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world.
