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Artwork Details
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Title:The Monkey Prince Angada Steals Ravana’s Crown: Folio from the dispersed Shangri Ramayana series (Style III)
Date:ca. 1700–30
Culture:India, Punjab Hills, kingdom of Jammu (Bahu)
Medium:Opaque watercolor on paper
Dimensions:13 3/4 × 8 3/4 in. (35 × 22.2 cm)
Classification:Codices
Credit Line:Promised Gift of Steven Kossak, The Kronos Collections
Object Number:L.2018.44.22
In this lively illustration to an incident described in Part Five (the Lanka or Sundara kanda) of the Ramayana (Adventures of Rama), the tenheaded Ravana, king of the demons and Rama’s implacable foe, is seated in his palace on the island of Lanka (Ceylon, or Sri Lanka), guarded by two demon servants. (For five other illustrated folios from the “Shangri Ramayana Series,” see cat. nos. 45, 46, 48, 49, and 50.) Angada, prince of the monkeys and Rama’s ally, had earlier flown to Lanka to spy on Ravana’s armies. Having nearly accomplished his mission, Angada allowed himself to be captured, for there were other things he needed to know., and there were other things he wanted to do. In captivity, leaping on the roof of Ravana’s palace, a roof as “high as a mountain,” he destroyed it as if by lightning. “Having destroyed the roof of the palace, Angada proclaimed (Rama’s) name and with a triumphant roar rose into the air. To the exceeding terror of the (demons) and the great delight of the (monkeys), he alighted in the midst “ of the monkey tribe to report to Rama, safely encamped with his armies on the adjoining mainland, all that he had seen in Ravana’s island stronghold. (1) The artist of this painting has added one further delightful yet unrequired touch to the narrative: in leaping upwards, Angada has taken hold of Ravana’s tenpart crown. (1) The Ramayana of Valmiki, translated by Hari Prasad Shastri (London: Shanti Sadan, 1959), Vol. III, pg. 101
Inscription: Inscribed on the reverse in black ink written in devanagari script: “21 / Lanka”
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.
