Starting next week, the Ramayana will be the focus of an exhibition at New York’s The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Sita and Rama: The Ramayana in Indian Painting will showcase 30 outstanding paintings that were produced for the Rajput and Pahari courts of north India between the 17th and 19th centuries. Highlights of the exhibition include a rare 19th-century painting titled Tantric Form of Monkey God Hanuman that is a new addition to The Met collection.
Other highlights include an early 19th-century masterpiece—Rama, Sita and Lakshmana Begin their Life in the Forest—that represents the sophisticated late Pahari painting tradition; a rare late 18th-century textile piece, The Combat of Rama and Ravenna; and an important group of six paintings from The Shangri Ramayana series dating from 1690 to 1710.
The exhibition is on from August 10, 2019 to August 23, 2020.
Rama and Lakshmana search in vain for Sita: An ink and opaque watercolour on paper from the Mewar region in Rajasthan, ca. 1680-90. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, T. Roland Berner Fund, 1974
An opaque watercolour and ink on paper from the Kangra valley in Himachal Pradesh, ca. 1780. The painting is called Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana at the Hermitage of Bharadvaja The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Seymour and Rogers Funds, 1976
An ink and opaque watercolour on paper from the kingdom of Guler, Punjab, ca. 1790. The painting depicts Hanuman reviving Rama and Lakshmana with medicinal herbs The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Cynthia Hazen Polsky, 1987
An 18th century cotton scarf from the Chamba region with scenes from the Ramayana embroidered on it with silk, tinsel and metal. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1931
Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana begin their life in the forest: An opaque watercolour, with gold and silver on paper from the kingdom of Kangra, Punjab, ca. 1800-1810 Promised Gift of the Kronos Collections, 2015
The Combat of Rama and Ravana: A late 18th century textile from the Coromandel Coast The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Friends of Asian Art Gifts, 2008
