Feast where Vishnu decides he will incarnate as King Dasharatha’s sons, from Chapters 14–15 of the "Bala Kanda" (Book of Childhood) of a Ramayana (Rama’s Journey) (c. 1810): Art, History and Details

Feast where Vishnu decides he will incarnate as King Dasharatha’s sons, from Chapters 14–15 of the "Bala Kanda" (Book of Childhood) of a Ramayana (Rama’s Journey) (c. 1810) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The women’s quarters of a palace occupy the right side of the composition. In the courtyard to the left, gods, including the blue Vishnu, four-headed Brahma, Surya (Sun), Chandra (Moon), Indra with eyes all over his body, and Shiva with snakes in his hair who sits with his minions, feast on food served on plates and bowls of leaves. Vishnu and Indra have taken off their crowns for the meal; the crowns are guarded on raised platforms in the background. The Pahari artist has depicted Dhaam, a local feast prepared by hereditary priest-chefs in accordance with strict Hindu rules of nutritional purity.

Object facts

• Title: Feast where Vishnu decides he will incarnate as King Dasharatha’s sons, from Chapters 14–15 of the "Bala Kanda" (Book of Childhood) of a Ramayana (Rama’s Journey)
• Date: c. 1810
• Culture: Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Overall: 27.7 x 39.4 cm (10 7/8 x 15 1/2 in.); Painting: 23.5 x 34.7 cm (9 1/4 x 13 11/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2018.121

A detail from the museum

Vishnu and Indra have taken off their crowns for the meal; the crowns are being guarded on raised platforms in the background.

Collection credit

Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Kramrisch, Stella. Manifestations of Siva. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1981.
• Bond, Constance. "India's Divine Art Reveals a God as Savant and Rogue." Smithsonian Magazine (May 1981):
• Bowles, John H. "Manifestations of Shiva." Orientations 12, no. 7 (July 1981).

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.