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Sep 27, 2016

May 7, 2010

Ravana addresses Sita in the garden of Lanka, from Chapters 53 and 54 of the Aranya Kanda (Book of the Forest) of a Ramayana (Rama’s Journey)

c. 1725

Northern India, Pahari Region, Himachal Pradesh, Rajput Kingdom of Guler

Gum tempera, gold, and silver on paper

Painting: 55.5 x 79 cm (21 7/8 x 31 1/8 in.); Overall: 56.3 x 81 cm (22 3/16 x 31 7/8 in.)

Gift of George P. Bickford 1966.143

Location

not on view

Did you know?

Ravana’s wives take the forms of beautiful women and fearsome demonesses.

Description

The viewer is cut off from Lanka by the surrounding sea and the city’s golden walls in this expansive composition probably intended for courtly display This choice of perspective cleverly emphasizes the captivity of the Sita, faithful wife of the hero Rama. She kneels beneath an ashoka tree, guarded by demonesses. The princess’s abductor, the ten-headed and twenty-armed demon lord of Lanka, Ravana, appears twice in the image. In the palace, he consults his council of minions. At the right, he hears Sita’s refusal to marry him. Ravana neither harms her, nor sets her free.

Provenance

Raja Raghunath Singh of Guler

Ananda K. Coomaraswamy [1877–1947]

?–1966

George P. Bickford [1901–1991] and Clara Louise Gehring Bickford [1903–1985], Cleveland Heights, OH

1966–

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Jain-Neubauer, Jutta. The Ramayana in Pahari Miniature Painting. Ahmedabad: LD Institute of Indology, 1981. Reproduced: no. 5, plate XI, fig. 22, pp. 38-39.

Gilbert, Rita, and William McCarter. Living with Art. New York: Alfred A Knopf, Inc., 1988. 2nd edition. Reproduced: fig. 66, p. 60.

Diane de Selliers, ed., Rāmāyaṇa. Volume V. Paris, 2011. Reproduced: p. 59.

Lee, Sherman E. A History of Far Eastern Art. New York: H. N. Abrams, 1994. 5th edition. Reproduced: p. 215, color plate 24.

Lee, Sherman E. and George Montgomery. Rajput Painting; with an introductory essay and catalogue notes. New York: Asia House, 1960. Reproduced: cat. no. 73A, pp. 76-77

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 239 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 239 archive.org

Archer, W. G. Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills; A Survey and History of Pahari Miniature Painting. London: Sotheby Parke Bernet, 1973. Mentioned: 1: 146

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 309 archive.org

Leach, Linda York. Indian Miniature Paintings and Drawings. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1986. Reproduced: cat. no. 113

Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. Masterworks of Asian Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998. Reproduced: pp. 172-173

Takac Panza, Jane "Mr. Bickford's Asian Adventures", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 46 no. 05, May/June 2006 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 11 archive.org

Brommer, Gerald F. Discovering Art History. Worcester, MA: Davis Publications, 2007. Reproduced: fig. 4-8

Goswamy, B. N. Manaku of Guler: The Life and Work of Another Great Indian Painter from a Small Hill State. New Delhi: Artibus Asiae Publishers [with] Niyogi Books, 2017. Reproduced: p. 67, cat. C5

Exhibition history

Rajput Painting. Asia House, New York, NY (December 3, 1960-January 22, 1961).

Hindu and Muslim Art of India. Duke University Museum of Art, Durham, NC (February 20-April 20, 1985); Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN (May 1-June 1, 1985); J.B. Speed Museum, Louisville, KY (July 10-August 30, 1985).

The Rama Epic: Hero, Heroine, Ally, Foe. Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA (organizer) (October 21, 2016-January 15, 2017).

Indian Gallery 242 Rotation – April-November 2017. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (April 10-November 6, 2017).

Imagining Rama's Journey (Indian Painting rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 10-September 17, 2023).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Ravana addresses Sita in the garden of Lanka, from Chapters 53 and 54 of the Aranya Kanda (Book of the Forest) of a Ramayana (Rama’s Journey)|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1966.143|year=c. 1725|access-date=03 December 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Ravana addresses Sita in the garden of Lanka, from Chapters 53 and 54 of the Aranya Kanda (Book of the Forest) of a Ramayana (Rama’s Journey)

Ravana addresses Sita in the garden of Lanka, from Chapters 53 and 54 of the Aranya Kanda (Book of the Forest) of a Ramayana (Rama’s Journey)

Northern India, Pahari Region, Himachal Pradesh, Rajput Kingdom of Guler

Location

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