Page 138 - Christie's Inidian and HImalayan Works of Art, March 2019
P. 138
PAINTINGS FROM THE ESTATE OF CAROL SUMMERS
(LOTS 694-709)
AN ILLUSTRATION FROM THE ‘SHANGRI’ RAMAYANA
This illustration is from the Aranya Kanda, the third book of the Ramayana. in the present painting, depicting Rama and Lakshmana in combat with
Rama, dressed in chainmail armour, stands in front of the demon army of the the long-armed demon Viradha. For further discussion on the Shangri
horse-headed gandharva, Tumburu. His younger brother, Lakshmana, and his Ramayana and attribution of the series to Kulu and Bahu by Archer, Goswamy
wife, Sita stand behind him. Tumburu, a gandharva or celestial musician, had and Fischer, see lot 702 of this sale. J.P. Losty more recently suggests
once angered the god of wealth, Kubera. Kubera cursed him that he would be that the series is by a Pahari artist possibly from Bilaspur (J.P. Losty and
born a demon and only to be freed when he was slain by Rama. Tumburu was F. Galloway, Court Paintings from Persia and India 1500 – 1900, London, 2016,
thus born as the demon Viradha. pp.70 – 73, no. 27).
W.G. Archer distinguishes four painting classifcations within the 'Shangri' For another folio from the series, executed in ‘Style IV,’ see T. McInerney, S.
Ramayana series (W.G. Archer, Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills, 1973, Kossak, N. Haider, Divine Pleasures: Painting from India’s Rajput Courts – The
Vol. I, p. 326). The present painting has been executed in ‘Style IV’ of Kronos Collections, (exhibition catalogue), New York, 2016, pp. 174-75, cat.
Archer’s classifcation and was the only style used for the Aranya Kanda. no. 61. The Kronos Collection folio, like the current painting, has a pale yellow
Archer discusses three other examples painted in ‘Style IV’ (Archer, op. cit., background with a high dark blue horizon, similarly rendered clumps of grass
Kulu no.5, pp.328-329). The frst of these examples (now in the National and a lengthy inscription in the red border.
Museum, New Delhi) is painted in a similar style and follows the episode
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