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Lot Essay
This illustration is from the Aranya Kanda, the third book of the Ramayana. Rama, dressed in chainmail armour, stands in front of the demon army of the horse-headed gandharva, Tumburu. His younger brother, Lakshmana, and his wife, Sita stand behind him. Tumburu, a gandharva or celestial musician, had once angered the god of wealth, Kubera. Kubera cursed him that he would be born a demon only to be freed when he was slain by Rama. Tumburu was thus born as the demon Viradha.
W.G. Archer distinguishes four painting classifications within the 'Shangri' Ramayana series (W.G. Archer, Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills, 1973, Vol. I, p. 326). The present painting has been executed in ‘Style IV’ of Archer’s classification and was the only style used for the Aranya Kanda. Archer discusses three other examples painted in ‘Style IV’ (Archer, op. cit., Kulu no.5, pp.328-329). The first of these examples (now in the National Museum, New Delhi) is painted in a similar style and follows the episode in the present painting, depicting Rama and Lakshmana in combat with the long-armed demon Viradha. For further discussion on the Shangri Ramayana and attribution of the series to Kulu and Bahu by Archer, Goswamy and Fischer, see lot 702 of this sale. J.P. Losty more recently suggests that the series is by a Pahari artist possibly from Bilaspur (J.P. Losty and F. Galloway, Court Paintings from Persia and India 1500 – 1900, London, 2016, pp.70 – 73, no. 27).
For another folio from the series, executed in ‘Style IV,’ see T. McInerney, S. Kossak, N. Haider, Divine Pleasures: Painting from India’s Rajput Courts – The Kronos Collections, (exhibition catalogue), New York, 2016, pp. 174-75, cat. no. 61. The Kronos Collection folio, like the current painting, has a pale yellow background with a high dark blue horizon, similarly rendered clumps of grass and a lengthy inscription in the red border.
W.G. Archer distinguishes four painting classifications within the 'Shangri' Ramayana series (W.G. Archer, Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills, 1973, Vol. I, p. 326). The present painting has been executed in ‘Style IV’ of Archer’s classification and was the only style used for the Aranya Kanda. Archer discusses three other examples painted in ‘Style IV’ (Archer, op. cit., Kulu no.5, pp.328-329). The first of these examples (now in the National Museum, New Delhi) is painted in a similar style and follows the episode in the present painting, depicting Rama and Lakshmana in combat with the long-armed demon Viradha. For further discussion on the Shangri Ramayana and attribution of the series to Kulu and Bahu by Archer, Goswamy and Fischer, see lot 702 of this sale. J.P. Losty more recently suggests that the series is by a Pahari artist possibly from Bilaspur (J.P. Losty and F. Galloway, Court Paintings from Persia and India 1500 – 1900, London, 2016, pp.70 – 73, no. 27).
For another folio from the series, executed in ‘Style IV,’ see T. McInerney, S. Kossak, N. Haider, Divine Pleasures: Painting from India’s Rajput Courts – The Kronos Collections, (exhibition catalogue), New York, 2016, pp. 174-75, cat. no. 61. The Kronos Collection folio, like the current painting, has a pale yellow background with a high dark blue horizon, similarly rendered clumps of grass and a lengthy inscription in the red border.