Hanuman with Rama and Lakshmana on his shoulders, from a Kalighat album (c. 1890): Art, History and Details

Hanuman with Rama and Lakshmana on his shoulders, from a Kalighat album (c. 1890) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

A simplified but bold color palette of orange, yellow, and green with silvery accents gives this image of Rama, Lakshmana, and their monkey ally Hanuman a sense of rhythm and urgency. Riding on Hanuman’s shoulders, the hero Rama—painted green—and his brother Lakshmana search for Rama’s abducted wife Sita. At the bottom of the painting, an informal scrawl contemplates the identification of the colossal figure as either the “Great Hero” Hanuman or Sugriva, but the image of a devoted tawny monkey carrying the two brothers unambiguously indicates Hanuman, Rama’s most faithful follower.

Object facts

• Title: Hanuman with Rama and Lakshmana on his shoulders, from a Kalighat album
• Date: c. 1890
• Culture: Eastern India, Bengal, Kolkata, Kalighat
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera, graphite, ink, and tin on paper
• Dimensions: Overall: 68.8 x 42.6 cm (27 1/16 x 16 3/4 in.); Painting: 45.6 x 29.4 cm (17 15/16 x 11 9/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2003.120

A detail from the museum

Hanuman can change his size and form at will, even making himself colossal in order to carry the two princes.

Collection credit

Gift of William E. Ward in memory of his wife, Evelyn Svec Ward

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.