Ravana battles the great vulture Jatayu and defeats him by throwing stones in his mouth, folio 18 (recto) 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, folio 18 (recto) from a Chandana Malayagiri Varta (Story of King Chandana and Queen Malayagiri) of Karamachand (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 of the abduction and rescue of Sita are embedded within a popular tale rewritten in a Gujarati-Rajasthani vernacular language by the poet Karamachand in 1629–30. Many details differ from the more well-known Ramayana of Valmiki. The artist shows Ravana as a merchant carrying Sita in a white sack slung over one shoulder. As Jatayu, a vulture ally of Rama, attempts to rescue her, Ravana attacks him with a sword, above. He then defeats the bird by throwing stones in his mouth. He painted the stones with blood, so Jatayu would swallow them.

Object facts

• Title: Ravana battles the great vulture Jatayu and defeats him by throwing stones in his mouth, folio 18 (recto) from a Chandana Malayagiri Varta (Story of King Chandana and Queen Malayagiri) of Karamachand
• Date: 1744–45
• Culture: Northwestern India, Rajasthan, Rajput Kingdom of Kishangarh
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Image: 13.4 x 14.9 cm (5 1/4 x 5 7/8 in.); Page: 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

A detail from the museum

The blood-covered stones will weigh the bird down, so he cannot rescue Sita.

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.