Illustration to the Ramayana: Vasishtha Teaches Rama and Lakshmana
Mewar, 1700–1710
Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper
Image: 9 ¼ x 14 ¾ in. (23.5 x 37.5 cm.)
Folio: 10 ¼ x 15 ⅞ in. (26 x 40.3 cm.)
The present painting depicts a scene (numbered ‘71’ in the inscription above) from the Bala Kanda, the first book of the Valmiki Ramayana which recounts the upbringing of Rama and Lakshmana. Instructed by Rishi Vasishtha, the brothers learn a variety of skills necessary for leading lives as princes of the realm. They’re shown wrestling two mustachioed men against a pale-green backdrop in the top left corner, studying the Vedas in a small architectural element, learning to swim in the water feature at the bottom left, receiving instruction from Rishi Vasishtha in the center, and riding elephants and charioteering to the far right.
The illustration displays a number of features characteristic of the Mewar style—in particular, the red and yellow borders, the prominence of primary colors throughout the composition, and the foliage that spreads out radially. In his discussion of a similar folio, Dr. Pratapaditya Pal remarks that:
We find [here] a Mewar artist, even as late as the year 1700, preferring a simple, direct mode of representation to the use of illusionistic devices that would create a more pictorial composition. We seem to be watching a performance on a stage that lacks a backdrop, where the details of the setting are left to the audience’s imagination. (Pal, p. 100)
Compare to another Ramayana folio depicting the Abduction of Sita, currently at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (acc. M.86.345.3). Note the bold colorblocked background partitioned by undulating green stripes and broken up by scattered white flowers—a common feature of Mewar paintings from the period.
References:
Pal, P., The Classical Tradition in Rajput Painting from the Paul F. Walter Collection, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, 1978.