The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Feast where Vishnu decides he will incarnate as King Dasharatha’s sons, from Chapters 14–15 of the "Bala Kanda" (Book of Childhood) of a Ramayana (Rama’s Journey)

c. 1810

Northern India, Pahari kingdoms

Gum tempera and gold on paper
Overall: 27.7 x 39.4 cm (10 7/8 x 15 1/2 in.); Painting: 23.5 x 34.7 cm (9 1/4 x 13 11/16 in.)
Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2018.121
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Vishnu and Indra have taken off their crowns for the meal; the crowns are being guarded on raised platforms in the background.

Description

The women’s quarters of a palace occupy the right side of the composition. In the courtyard to the left, gods, including the blue Vishnu, four-headed Brahma, Surya (Sun), Chandra (Moon), Indra with eyes all over his body, and Shiva with snakes in his hair who sits with his minions, feast on food served on plates and bowls of leaves. Vishnu and Indra have taken off their crowns for the meal; the crowns are guarded on raised platforms in the background. The Pahari artist has depicted Dhaam, a local feast prepared by hereditary priest-chefs in accordance with strict Hindu rules of nutritional purity.
  • ?–1969
    (Antiqarts, Bombay, India, sold to Ralph Benkaim)
    1969–2018
    Catherine Glynn Benkaim and Ralph Benkaim Collection
    2018–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Kramrisch, Stella. Manifestations of Siva. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1981. Reproduced: P-28, p. 191
    Bond, Constance. "India's Divine Art Reveals a God as Savant and Rogue." Smithsonian Magazine (May 1981): reproduced p. 60.
    Bowles, John H. "Manifestations of Shiva." Orientations 12, no. 7 (July 1981). Reproduced: Fig. 18, p. 23.
  • Imagining Rama’s Journey. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 10-September 17, 2023).
    Manifestations of Shiva, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA (March 29–June 7, 1981) and other museums (August 1, 1981–May 30, 1982)
  • {{cite web|title=Feast where Vishnu decides he will incarnate as King Dasharatha’s sons, from Chapters 14–15 of the "Bala Kanda" (Book of Childhood) of a Ramayana (Rama’s Journey)|url=false|author=|year=c. 1810|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2018.121