Layout 3 - India Foundation for the Arts - IFA

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ArtConnect: The IFA Magazine, Volume 6, Number 1
Lanka, created inside a Chhatri in
Parashuramapura of the Shekhawati
region, the mural on the circular wall
of the dome leaves the viewer dizzy,
circling to grasp the movements of
monkeys and bears played out across
the interior of the dome. In a similarly
circulating movement, in the murals of
the late-eighteenth-century
Kashivishwanath temple of Chandod
in Gujarat, the soldiers of Ravana are
slyly cast into the garb of firangis
(foreigners) and Hanuman is shown
urinating upon the yagna conducted
by Indrajit while flinging the demons
into a knotty puzzle. In the pages of
the Andhra Ramayana, you are enticed
to watch with wonder as Hanuman
jumps into the jaws of the female
demon Surasa to come out of her ears;
or join him in his mischief when he
peeks into the harem of Ravana to
find the multi-limbed demon in bed
with his female companions.
This oceanic narrative touches every
aspect of life, from birth to death.
There is no parallel in the portrayal of
the majesty of motherhood seen in the
Mattancheri palace mural of Cochin,
where the three queens of Dasharatha
give simultaneous birth. In the
tenderest of scenes in the Mewar
Ramayana, the three queens, set in
separate niches, are seen feeding their
infant sons. Scenes of death, especially
those of Dasharatha, Jatayu and
Ravana, can be deeply poignant. The
Mewar Ramayana brings forth
unprecedented aspects of the tragic in
the successive images of grieving
Dasharatha before he passes away. As
the exiles prepare to leave, the
mounting grief of Dasharatha in a
continuous series of folios reads like a
dirge. Here, he turns his face away as
Kaikeyi pronounces the banishment of
Rama on his behalf, and there, he
takes Rama, Sita and Lakshmana on
his lap like infants and then, with
outstretched arms bids farewell to
them, before breaking down and
falling. In an unexpectedly naturalistic
portrayal in a Kangra hillscape of the
funeral procession of Dasharatha, the
lament of the city of Ayodhya is
inscribed on the faces of hundreds of
shaven mourners.
Jatayu’s death figures in a number of
folios: in the Shangri Ramayana pages,
he stands regally challenging the
demon in front of the chariot he has
destroyed; or is engaged in a fierce
fight with the twenty-armed Ravana
carrying a weapon in every hand. In a
page from a Kangra set, the mangled
limbs of the bird lie scattered against
the remnants of Ravana’s chariot and
the mules he has crushed to pieces
after a valiant fight. In a Chitrakathi
page, he stares like a celestial bird into