Layout 3 - India Foundation for the Arts - IFA

produces a rare form of intimate yet
numinous realism. Set in the climate
of the hills, the visualisation is marked
by a limpid palette, clarity of detail
and an overall sense of ease. There is a
tenderness that is difficult to define
but it permeates every character,
including the demonic. The bears and
monkeys, the most endearing of all,
are drawn in loving likenesses. They
spread themselves out in disciplined
groups of light brown or black, in
contrast to the demon army, which is
often in a chaotic yet colourful melee.
Unlike the projective figural
conglomeration and animation of the
Mewar Yuddha-kanda, Pandit Seu
conjures his Ramayana on rolling
green grounds with a golden fortress
accentuated with turrets and balconies
and magical gardens laid out in broad
expanses of colour over the wide
spatial field.
The figures located in expansive fields
of colour are restrained, more
personalised and delineated with an
affectionate intimacy compared to the
Mewar bravura. The characters are
individualised: Ravana’s spies Suka
and Sarana or equally Rama’s emissary
Angad fly over the ramparts.
Grotesquerie in the crowds of demon
soldiers is redeemed by the comic. The
individualised images of Hanuman
and Angad, following the Mughal
Reading Visuals – Gulammohammed Sheikh
example, are shown suitably dressed
with human bodies, monkey faces and
tails but with an unusual kind of
grace. Even though the heroic
characters are portrayed with
reverential care, the handsome image
of Ravana with his exquisite facial
characterisation and luxurious
designer jamas outshines them all.
Where do we go from here? We have
traversed from the terrains of north
India mapped by the artists of the
Mughal ateliers, to the rugged lands of
the Mewar countryside, finally scaling
the hills that the Ramayana took us
to. Hundreds of other ‘sets’ located in
different times take us across lands
and waters of the subcontinent,
traversing the epic narrative in varied
interpretations of familiar chapters.
Or else they take us into uncharted
territories by inventing new themes to
enable the dramatis personae of the
Ramayana to get re-born in the eyes,
minds and hearts of the populace. In
the hinterlands of India, the painterperformers
of Bengal and
Maharashtra in their patas (scrolls)
and folios of chitrakathi have boldly
woven local tales and atypical
perceptions into the epic narrative.
Likewise, the leather puppeteers of
Andhra and Karnataka have enacted
extraordinary visualisations of
Ayodhya, Kishkindha and Lanka in
the bylanes of villages. In the siege of
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