Ravana addresses Sita in the garden of Lanka, from Chapters 53 and 54 of the Aranya Kanda (Book of the Forest) of a Ramayana (Rama’s Journey) (c. 1725): Art, History and Details

Ravana addresses Sita in the garden of Lanka, from Chapters 53 and 54 of the Aranya Kanda (Book of the Forest) of a Ramayana (Rama’s Journey) (c. 1725) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The viewer is cut off from Lanka by the surrounding sea and the city’s golden walls in this expansive composition probably intended for courtly display This choice of perspective cleverly emphasizes the captivity of the Sita, faithful wife of the hero Rama. She kneels beneath an ashoka tree, guarded by demonesses. The princess’s abductor, the 10-headed and 20-armed demon lord of Lanka, Ravana, appears twice in the image. In the palace, he consults his council of minions. At the right, he hears Sita’s refusal to marry him. Ravana neither harms her, nor sets her free.

Object facts

• Title: Ravana addresses Sita in the garden of Lanka, from Chapters 53 and 54 of the Aranya Kanda (Book of the Forest) of a Ramayana (Rama’s Journey)
• Date: c. 1725
• Culture: Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera, gold, and silver on paper
• Dimensions: Painting: 55.5 x 79 cm (21 7/8 x 31 1/8 in.); Overall: 56.3 x 81 cm (22 3/16 x 31 7/8 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1966.143

A detail from the museum

Ravana’s wives take the forms of beautiful women and fearsome demonesses.

Collection credit

Gift of George P. Bickford

Further reading listed by the museum

• Jain-Neubauer, Jutta. The Ramayana in Pahari Miniature Painting. Ahmedabad: LD Institute of Indology, 1981.
• Gilbert, Rita, and William McCarter. Living with Art. New York: Alfred A Knopf, Inc., 1988. 2nd edition.
• Diane de Selliers, ed., Rāmāyaṇa. Volume V. Paris, 2011.

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.