AN ILLUSTRATION FROM A RAMAYANA SERIES: RAMA AND LAKSHMANA AT COURT
Malwa, West-Central India, 18th - 19th century

Opaque pigments on paper, the horizontal composition depicting Rama and his brother Lakshmana seated under a domed marble pavilion, Sita behind them sitting closer to the entrance on the right-hand side, in the centre of the scene a Hindu pundit officiating a ceremony with Rama, both characters with their scarves tied to their knees, behind them to the left a white cow and a group of pundits witnessing the ceremony, pairs of ducks frolicking in the lotus pond in front of the scene, possibly an allusion to Rama and Sita's wedding and marital devotion, set within red rules and ochre borders, the recto plain except for a few later pencil annotations, 20.8cm x 28cm.

Provenance: in a private UK collection since the late 1970s.