Jatayu hinders Ravana’s chariot trying to prevent Sita’s abduction (recto), from a Kalighat album

c. 1890

Jatayu hinders Ravana’s chariot trying to prevent Sita’s abduction (recto), from a Kalighat album, c. 1890. Shri Gobinda Chandra Roy (Indian, active late 1800s). Woodcut with black ink on paper; secondary support: 49.8 x 31.4 cm (19 5/8 x 12 3/8 in.); image only: 40.6 x 26.5 cm (16 x 10 7/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of William E. Ward in memory of his wife, Evelyn Svec Ward 2003.111.a As ten-headed Ravana successfully flies away with his quarry, Princess Sita, the demon king is stopped by the great vulture Jatayu, an ally to Sita’s husband Rama.

Closely resembling the Bengali paintings of the same subject, a woodcut print was a less expensive alternative to a painting. Almost any resident of the burgeoning city of Calcutta (now Kolkata) could afford to acquire one. Woodcuts such as this were made on paper that Christian missionaries intended for the production of Bibles. However, local artists used it to mass-produce popular Hindu imagery. In the Bengali version of this episode, Jatayu swallows Ravana’s chariot only to vomit it out once he realizes Sita is aboard.