Asian art museum ramayana series#
Video screens of mostly modern performances and TV series show how they have played an important part in continuing the epic in present-day India.
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The exhibition would have been a must-see even if only the miniatures had been shown. Also included are illustrations by 17th- and 19th-century European and contemporary Indian artists. It is possibly the first time five leaves from the Shangri Ramayana of a few decades later are together since the set was broken up (fig 7). The exhibition includes Indian miniature paintings from many sources including the British Library, eight from their famous Mewar Ramayana (1649-1653) never before seen in the US. The extensive catalogue entries were written by Qamar Adamjee, Jeffrey Durham, Ghosh, McGill, and Natasha Reichle. McGill’s ‘Picturing Ravana’ explores the complexity of Ravana’s character, obviously a favourite of his and ours. Philip Lutgendorf on Hanuman in the Rama epic ‘Alley, Devotee, and Friend’, tells his birth stories absent from the original text, and of the wide adoration the monkey deity receives today. Pika Ghosh, in ‘A Ramayana of One’s Own,’ relates ‘the pleasures and pangs’ of stories heard during her childhood in Bengal and of Rama’s devotion to the goddess Durga.
![asian art museum ramayana asian art museum ramayana](http://cdn2.brooklynmuseum.org/images/opencollection/objects/size4/85.220.1_IMLS_PS4.jpg)
Renowned leaders of the Valmiki Ramayana Translation Project, Robert Goldman and Sally Goldman, contribute important chapters: Robert, ‘The Story in the Ramayana of Valmiki’ and ‘Hero of a Thousand Texts’ and Sally, ‘A Heroine’s Journey’. The better known ‘lived happily ever after’ version appears on the opposite side of the gallery. This is related in the last of the seven volumes of Valmiki, often ignored by authors of later versions. Sita reacts by calling upon her mother the Earth Goddess to swallow her, leaving the court stunned. In the original Valmiki text Sita is called to undergo more hardship, is exiled again, their twin sons are born, and on her return is asked by Rama a second time to prove her fidelity. The last gallery presents two alternate endings to the Ramayana. On the same subject there is a Malwa painting (cat no 49) and one by modern artist Jamini Roy (cat no 72).
Asian art museum ramayana trial#
Sita demands to undergo a trial by fire, a subject often depicted in Balinese painting the one exhibited (cat no 73) is too large and detailed to include here. When she returns with Rama to his kingdom he questions her purity since she had lived in another man’s home. The Story of the RamayanaĪlas, Sita’s ordeals are not over. Rama eventually encounters Ravana in a fight to the death (fig 6) from a series in a large-format manuscript depicting combat scenes in the Thai dance-drama. Newly acquired by the Asian Art Museum, and after 400 hours of meticulous restoration, it has yet to be studied in depth by scholars. He even appears supporting the Buddha and two disciples in a large Thai painting (fig 5). The beloved Hanuman’s presence was and is widespread, including in Southeast Asia. Hanuman the monkey general is enlisted to assist in rescuing Sita. In this exhibition of the Rama epic various character’s stories unfold. The Museum’s own impressive Balinese Ravana, here in closeup, is one of diverse representations of the ultimate antihero.
![asian art museum ramayana asian art museum ramayana](https://live.staticflickr.com/5478/29967337840_8089596812_b.jpg)
And it is because of Ravana that the story has gripped so many throughout the ages. Perhaps the demon king Ravana should have appeared next in the exhibit sequence since his kidnapping of Sita occurs well before the appearance of Hanuman. Sita appears in another classic Chola bronze (fig 3) from the Linden-Museum, Stuttgart. Some of the story is seen in a fine embroidered Burmese textile with Rama bending the bow (fig 2) in the contest that leads to his marriage to Sita. One of the first is the splendid Chola bronze of Rama (fig 1) from the Asia Society, New York. The exhibition galleries feature in turn Hero Rama, Heroine Sita, Ally Hanuman, and Foe Ravana in sculpture, paintings, manuscripts, puppets, masks, and textiles. Exhibition curator and editor of the catalogue Forrest McGill has assembled 135 objects from the last 1,500 years, loaned by 28 institutions and private collections in the US, Britain, and Europe, and from the Museum’s own holdings.
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The Rama Epic: Hero, Heroine, Ally, Foe at the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco is the most complete exploration of Ramayana-related art to be seen in the US.