Artwork Page for Shurpanakha demands vengeance, from the "Shangri" Ramayana

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Shurpanakha demands vengeance, from the "Shangri" Ramayana

c. 1700
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Northern India, Pahari kingdoms

Medium
Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Measurements
Painting: 18.4 x 28.9 cm (7 1/4 x 11 3/8 in.); Page: 21.6 x 31.8 cm (8 1/2 x 12 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2018.107
Public Domain
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Did You Know?

The Ramayana of Valmiki describes Shurpanakha as hideous, misshapen, and potbellied with hair the color of copper.

Description

The golden island city of Lanka, inhabited by demons, is ruled by their ten-headed king Ravana, shown at right wielding a different weapon in each of his 20 hands. At the center of the composition, Ravana’s red-haired sister laments that Rama and his brother Lakshmana spurned her advances and humiliated her. To avenge his sister’s mutilation, and intrigued by reports of Sita’s beauty, Ravana decides to abduct Sita and claim her for himself.

Gold leaf makes the ramparts and turrets of Lanka glimmer splendidly, a sharp contrast to the dreadful residents.
Horizontally long painting depicting a glinting gold-walled island city filled with demons with light, grey, red, green, and blue skin tones, horns and tusks. In a yellow-orange, boat-like structure extending from our right, Ravana, a ten-headed demon with medium-dark skin tone, holds a weapon in each of his twenty hands. Just outside, gesturing to him, stands a wispy, red-haired demon. Fish poke their heads out of water along the lower edge.

Shurpanakha demands vengeance, from the "Shangri" Ramayana

c. 1700

Northern India, Pahari kingdoms

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