Folio 18 from a Chandana Malayagiri Varta (Story of King Chandana and Queen Malayagiri) of Karamachand: Ravana battles the great vulture Jatayu and defeats him by throwing stones in his mouth (recto);

Folio 18 from a Chandana Malayagiri Varta (Story of King Chandana and Queen Malayagiri) of Karamachand: Ravana battles the great vulture Jatayu and defeats him by throwing stones in his mouth (recto); Jatayu approaches Rama and Lakshmana who are wondering where Sita could be (verso) (1744–45) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Scenes pertaining to the loss and rescue of Sita have been embedded in a popular tale written by Bhadrasena (active c. 1620), and expanded by the poet Karamacand in 1629–30. The pages from this manuscript are dispersed among many collections. Its last page, known from a photograph provided by Arun Bharany in New Delhi, includes a colophon statement. It informs us that the manuscript was written in Samvat 1802 (equivalent to 1744–45) in Kishangarh for five patrons named Rikhaji, Karamchandji, Mahataji, Shri Jagamalaji, and his son Motichandji. The scribe was a monk named Udayasagar in the Bijai (or Vijay) Gacch, a monastic lineage of the Shvetambar Jains.

Object facts

• Title: Folio 18 from a Chandana Malayagiri Varta (Story of King Chandana and Queen Malayagiri) of Karamachand: Ravana battles the great vulture Jatayu and defeats him by throwing stones in his mouth (recto); Jatayu approaches Rama and Lakshmana who are wondering where Sita could be (verso)
• Date: 1744–45
• Culture: Northwestern India, Rajasthan, Rajput Kingdom of Kishangarh
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Recto Painting: 13.4 x 14.9 cm (5 1/4 x 5 7/8 in.); Verso Painting: 14.9 x 14.8 cm (5 7/8 x 5 13/16 in.); Overall: 28.8 x 20 cm (11 5/16 x 7 7/8 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1968.108

A detail from the museum

Reciting, hearing, and meditating on this story was thought to bring merit for ten million eons (a crore of kalpas).

Collection credit

James Parmelee and Cornelia Blakemore Warner Funds

Further reading listed by the museum

• Leach, Linda York. Indian Miniature Paintings and Drawings: The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Oriental Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1986.

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.