The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 13, 2025

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

Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
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.)
Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2018.107
Location: Not on view

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.
  • ?–1956
    Unknown
    1956–July 1969
    Walter Randal, New York, NY
    July 1969–2018
    Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection, Los Angeles, CA
    2018–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Cummins, Joan. Vishnu: Hinduism’s Blue-Skinned Savior. Grantha, 2011. Reproduced: cat. no. 80.
    McGill, Forest, ed. The Rama Epic: Hero, Heroine, Ally, Foe. San Francisco: Asian Art Museum, 2016. Reproduced: cat. no. 118, pp. 203, 228.
  • Imagining Rama’s Journey. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 10-September 17, 2023).
    Indian Gallery 242 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (September 10, 2018-April 7, 2019).
    Indian Gallery 242 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (September 10, 2018-April 7, 2019).
    The Rama Epic: Hero, Heroine, Ally, Foe. Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA (organizer) (October 21, 2016-January 15, 2017).
    Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (February 20-May 29, 2011); Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY (June 24-October 2, 2011).
  • {{cite web|title=Shurpanakha demands vengeance, from the "Shangri" Ramayana|url=false|author=|year=c. 1700|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2018.107