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PROPERTY FROM THE LANIER COLLECTION The cubist manner of alternating white marble and pink brick
architecture, criss-crossing the top of the painting, is a notable
RAMA PERFORMS YAJNA WITH THE feature of the studio of Purkhu. With red outer borders and
GOLDEN STATUE OF SITA: A FOLIO FROM A white ruled lines. At top in white ink on red border: (folio)
RAMAYANA MANUSCRIPT 38 and Ayodhya (kanda). Verso: text in lines of black ink
ATTRIBUTED TO PURKHU AND HIS Devanagari script.
WORKSHOP
India, Pahari, Kangra, circa 1800 Depictions of Hindu epic narratives such as this folio from
a dispersed Ramayana series, can lead to tour-de-force
Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper paintings in the hands of Pahari painters in uenced by the
image: 14¼ by 10¾ in. (35.5 by 25.4 cm) studio of the artist Purkhu (active 1790-1820) considered the
folio: 16¾ by 13¼ in. (40.6 by 33 cm) principal master of the royal atelier of Maharaja Sansar Chand
(r. 1775-1823) of Kangra - arguably the single most in uential
PROVENANCE painting studio of the Pahari region in the rst half of the
Nineteenth Century.
Sotheby’s New York, 25 March 1987, lot 152
For similar works, see W.G. Archer, Indian Paintings from
Rama accompanied by a golden statue of Sita performs the the Punjab Hills, vol. II, p. 197; B. N. Goswamy and E. Fischer,
Ashwamehda Yajna. The sage Valmiki participates. They ‘Pahari Masters’, Artibus Asiae, Zurich, 1992, pp. 367-87; and
sit before a ritual Yajna re. The slender Mandapa roof-line J. Guy & J. Britschgi, Wonder of the Age: Master Painters of
attracts a ock of green parrots promising good fortune. India 1300-1900, New York, p. 176. See also Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston, accession no. 65.419 and San Diego Museum of
According to the sages, to perform this Yajna (ritual) Rama Art, accession nos. 1990.1303 and 1990.1302.
must be married, but his wife Sita had already departed the
Earth. So he married a golden replica of Sita to maintain the $ 20,000-30,000
purity of the rite. Sita is cast in gold to express her virtue and
purity having survived the test of re.
