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ILLUSTRATION FROM THE “SHANGRI” RAMAYANA: While the combined books of the Shangri Ramayana are rendered in
RAMA, SITA, AND LAKSHMANA AT THE HERMITAGE IN different styles by various hands differing in quality, according to Alka
PANCAVATI Bagri, Book III is painted by a single, skilled artist:
KULU OR JAMMU, 1700-1710
Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper; “[He] closely adheres to the textual source and is perhaps the most
Inscribed in Takri along the top border: Panchavati Raat Uparant consistent and accomplished painter in the Shangri Ramayaṇa series...
dusrey din pratah kala sri maharaj sita lachhman godavari [...] kar no other artist can match the range of expression found in his work.”
mandal layi kari chaley”; “The following morning after the first night in (A. Bagri, “The Illustrations of the Shangri Ramayana, Early Court
the forest of Panchavati; Lord Rama, Lakshamana and Sita went for Paintings in the Punjab Hills,” Oxford University Thesis, 2010.)
their ablutions to the River Godavari”.
Image: 7 1/2 x 11 5/8 in. (19.8 x 28.1 cm); For comparable works see Archer, Indian Painting from the Punjab
Folio: 8 1/2 x 12 3/4 in. (22.3 x 30.7 cm) Hills, London, 1973, vol. II, p.243, no.5 (i); Fogg, Indian Paintings
and Manuscripts, 1999, p.86, fig.54; Sotheby’s, New York, 14
November 2002, lot 60 and Losty & Francesca Galloway, Court
$40,000 - 60,000
Paintings from Persia and India, London, 2016, pp.70 & 71, no.27.
Also for fuller discussion on the disputed origin of the Shangri
Exemplifying the rich use of color so beloved of Pahari painting, the Ramayana’s various books, see Britschgi and Fischer, Rama und
scene takes place against a brilliant canary yellow ground, illustrating Sita, Zurich, 2008, pp.12-4.
the Ramayana’s ‘Book of the Forest’, Book III, chapters 15 and 16.
Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita have awoken from the first night spent in Provenance
their new forest dwelling, Panchavati, built in exile. Its thatched roof is Mandi Royal Collection
nestled among a grove of plum trees with Spanish moss descending Private European Collection acquired 1969
from the sage canopies. The three heroes have left their belongings Rob Dean Art, London, November 2015
behind to head to the river Godavari to perform their morning
ablutions. The river bends with considerable movement before them
and flows across the bottom of the painting, producing a fertile bank
of short and tall grasses. Rama remarks on how the days are getting
colder and winter is approaching.

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