Rama Shall be King?

Rama Shall be King?

ca. 1710

India, Mewar

Opaque watercolor and gold on paper

Image: 10 1/2 x 16 1/2 in. (26.7 x 41.9 cm)

2013.012.001

It could be said that the Ramayana begins with a failure:
Rama should be king, but his rightful claim to the throne is denied.
Here king Dasharatha, having joyously resolved on the succession of his eldest son Rama, has sent the charioteer Sumantra to summon him. As is typical of Mewari style, the painting tells a sequential narrative, with individual scenes separated by architectural motifs and blocks of color. It centers on Rama’s brief chariot journey, across a sparse, stylized field, from his private but majestic home (right) to Dasharatha’s palace (left), its lofty height indicated by a short set of stairs. In the assembly, Rama, seated reverently below three brahmin advisors and the enthroned king himself, learns of his imminent coronation.
The coronation, however, will soon be interrupted by the plotting of Kaikeyi, one of Dasharatha’s three wives. Invoking two royal boons promised to her years earlier, she demands that the king banish Rama to a life of asceticism in the forest, and consecrate her son, Bharata, in his place. Bound by oath, Dasharatha complies, before dying of grief over this perversion of natural succession.

Gift of William E. Torres

MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, April 1 - October 27, 2014

© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University. Photo by Bruce M. White, 2015.

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