IO San 3621

IO San 3621

Eighteen illustrations to the ‘Ramayana’ of Valmiki.

Udaipur, Mewar, c.1655.

Purchased June 1912.

Inscribed on the reverse of each leaf in nagari characters in black: 13-18 lines of Sanskrit text from Kanda V (‘Sundara Kanda’) of Valmiki’s ‘Ramayana’; a few lines are written in red, and the margins on either side of the text area are ruled with inner triple and outer double lines in red; each page has a folio number written twice in the margin with a running headline identifying the ‘Sundara Kanda’ at the top left.

Gouache with gold; borders of red and yellow, or red and gold with, in most cases, coloured decoration on the gold.

Published: Losty (1978), 8 and fig.3. See Keith 6561.

Note: These eighteen folios are all that survive from ‘Kanda’ V (‘Sundara Kanda’) of an illustrated manuscript of Valmiki’s version of the ‘Ramayana’ prepared originally for Rana Jagat Singh of Udaipur (1628-52), and completed early in the reign of Rana Raj Singh (1652-c.1680). Most of the manuscript is in the British Library (Add.15295-97), contained in three bound volumes incorporating ‘Kandas’ I, II, IV, VI and VII. While ‘Kanda’ I is a later section dated 1712, the other four ‘Kandas’ are all written by the scribe Mahatma Hirananda and are dated between 1650 and 1653. The original ‘Kanda’ I is now divided between the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay, and the collection of Sir Cowasji Jahangir, and was completed in 1649, with illustrations by the artist Manohar. The sections in the British Library are illustrated in different styles: ‘Kandas’ III (now in the Rajasthan Oriental Research Institute, Udaipur) and VII follow the style of Manohar, II and VI are in the style of the artist Sahibdin, whose name is mentioned in the colophon of ‘Kanda’ VI, while ‘Kanda’ IV is in a freely expressed and individual manner showing ties with the Deccani-influenced Udaipur style that has been associated with Aurangabad (Doshi (1972)). The eighteen illustrations of ‘Kanda’ V are in this latter style and can be confidently attributed to the same atelier as ‘Kanda’ IV. The colophon of ‘Kanda’ IV gives the date of completion VS1710/AD1653, names the reigning ruler Raj Singh, and states that the volume was commissioned by Vyasa Jaya Devaji who was probably Raj Singh’s newly appointed librarian. On the basis of the strong stylistic similarity, it seems fair to conjecture that the India Office series was also completed c.1653, the text written by Mahatma Hirananda, and the illustrations painted by the same artist or artists as ‘Kanda’ IV. The question of the incompleteness of ‘Kanda’ V remains open. It could be that the section never was completed, borne out by the fact that the colophon has not been written on the final folio 141 where it should have appeared, but the possibility of the existence of other leaves from ‘Kanda’ V can by no means be ruled out.

The text of the ‘Sundara Kanda’ is concerned with the journey of the monkey chief Hanuman to Lanka, where he enters the city of the demon king Ravana and meets with Sita whom Ravana has abducted. Hanuman then reports back to Rama, who with Hanuman’s encouragement determines to mount a rescue operation. The subjects of the eighteen leaves have been traced through the English translation of Valmiki’s Ramayana made by H.P. Shastri, based on a recension where the division between the Sundara ‘Kanda’ and’ Yuddha Kanda’ is made at an earlier point, accounting for the appearance of ff.13-18 under the ‘Yuddha Kanda’ of Shastri’s version.