Battle of Ravana and Jatayu, from Chapters 50 and 51 of the Aranya Kanda (Book of the Forest) of Valmiki's Ramayana (Rama’s Journey); folio from the "Burnt" Ramayana (c. 1605): Art, History and Detail

Battle of Ravana and Jatayu, from Chapters 50 and 51 of the Aranya Kanda (Book of the Forest) of Valmiki's Ramayana (Rama’s Journey); folio from the "Burnt" Ramayana (c. 1605) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The vulture Jatayu, Lord of the Birds, his beak agape, loses feathers and dark red blood in his desperate fight to save Sita from her kidnapper, the ten-headed Ravana. Since this painting was damaged by fire in India decades ago, Sita is barely visible now at the bottom right corner, in Ravana’s donkey-led chariot. Her expression is pensive, as she awaits her fate. In adherence to the Ramayana text written on the back of the painting, the donkeys were the first victims in the battle that will claim Jatayu’s life.

Object facts

• Title: Battle of Ravana and Jatayu, from Chapters 50 and 51 of the Aranya Kanda (Book of the Forest) of Valmiki's Ramayana (Rama’s Journey); folio from the "Burnt" Ramayana
• Date: c. 1605
• Culture: Central India, Bundelkhand Region, Madhya Pradesh, Rajput Kingdom of Datia, Court of Raja Bir Singh Deo (reigned 1605–27)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera and ink on paper
• Dimensions: Painting: 26.1 x 15.6 cm (10 1/4 x 6 1/8 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art - Mughal
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2013.306

A detail from the museum

This page is from a series known as the “Burnt Ramayana,” since it was damaged by fire.

Collection credit

Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• McGill, Forest, ed. The Rama Epic: Hero, Heroine, Ally, Foe. San Francisco: Asian Art Museum, 2016.
• Mace, Sonya Rhie, Mohsen Ashtiany, Catherine Glynn, Pedro Moura Carvalho, Marcus Fraser, and Ruby Lal. Mughal Paintings: Art and Stories. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.