Ravana addresses Sita in the garden of Lanka, from Chapters 53 and 54 of the Aranya Kanda (Book of the Forest) of a Ramayana (Rama’s Journey)

c. 1725

Ravana addresses Sita in the garden of Lanka, from Chapters 53 and 54 of the Aranya Kanda (Book of the Forest) of a Ramayana (Rama’s Journey), c. 1725. Northern India, Pahari Region, Himachal Pradesh, Rajput Kingdom of Guler. Gum tempera, gold, and silver on paper; image: 55.5 x 79 cm (21 7/8 x 31 1/8 in.); page: 56.3 x 81 cm (22 3/16 x 31 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of George P. Bickford 1966.143 The viewer is cut off from Lanka by the surrounding sea and the city’s golden walls in this expansive composition probably intended for courtly display This choice of perspective cleverly emphasizes the captivity of the Sita, faithful wife of the hero Rama. She kneels beneath an ashoka tree, guarded by demonesses. The princess’s abductor, the ten-headed and twenty-armed demon lord of Lanka, Ravana, appears twice in the image. In the palace, he consults his council of minions. At the right, he hears Sita’s refusal to marry him. Ravana neither harms her, nor sets her free. Ravana’s wives take the forms of beautiful women and fearsome demonesses.