RAMA'S BROTHER PULLING A THORN FROM HIS FOOT: ILLUSTRATION TO THE RAMAYANA, PAHARI, CHAMBA, CIRCA 1700-1710

Opaque watercolour and gold on paper

Formerly in the Collection of Philip Hofer, Cambridge, Massachusetts, mid 20th century

A Flower from Every Meadow: Indian Painting from American Collections, Asia House Gallery, New York; Center of Asian Art and Culture: Avery Brundage Collection, San Francisco; Albright-Knox Gallery of Art, Buffalo, 1973

Welch 1973, no. 37 

Cropped borders, rubbing and loss to lower left and right corners, minor areas of cracquelure, minor flaking to Rama's face and torso and worm hole to his lunghi, as viewed.
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This is a very rare and important example of early Pahari painting, encapsulating the combination of power and tender lyricism for which this tradition of painting is known.

The illustration is from a Ramayana, but the scene portrayed here is very unusual and may be unique in Pahari painting. In the catalogue accompanying the 1973 exhibition A Flower from Every Meadow, Cary Welch described it thus:

"This unhappy episode from the Ramayana unfolds as though acted out in a mystery play. The atmosphere is hushed, as in mime, but there is much feeling, however ritualized and understated, on the part of the "players." Rama, gracefully and elegantly supported by two gentle warriors, looks upward with the extra-human trust occasionally noted in the eyes of a hurt animal. The thorn is removed firmly, surely, and tenderly.
 The composition is a masterful counterpoint of graceful ovals and arcs, drawn with a fine, wiry line, and painted in mustard yellows, white, blue, and greens. Ascending oval clumps of foliage buoy the design, while gently falling creepers provide a quiet throbbing drone recalling the tambura in Indian music.' (Welch 1973, p. 70)

Stylistically, the closest comparable illustrations to this work are a painting of Krishna and Radha against a yellow background, of circa 1690-1710, in the Brooklyn Museum of Art (see Poster 1994, no.200, pp.246-247) and two illustrations of Parasurama Slaying Kartavirya of circa 1700 (respectively, Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum, Hyderabad, see Archer 1973, vol.1. p.80, no.8, vol.2, p.52, no.8; Museum Rietberg, Zurich, Alice Boner Collection, see Boner, Fischer and Goswamy 1994, p.99, no.278). The face of the figure of Krishna in the Brooklyn picture and the figures of Parasurama in the Mittal and Rietberg pictures are very close to those of the present work and may be by the same hand. The scale of the figures in relation to the page is similar in the Mittal picture, and while the size of the actual page is smaller than the present work, the size of the Rietberg page is very similar. Another work closely comparable in style is Balarama Diverting the Course of the Jamuna which is also of very similar dimensions (see Randhawa Chamba, pl.VI).

Hints of a slightly earlier style are found in the face of the central standing warrior in the present work, which bears a close resemblance to that of  the figure of the courtier/devotee dressed in pink and holding a fly-whisk in The Vaishnava Saints Bhagwanji and Nairainji (c.1690, see Goswamy and Fischer 1992, no.54, p.141). The trees in the present work resemble those seen in other Chamba works of the period, specifically a Ragamala illustration of circa 1700 (Goswamy and Fischer 1992, no.56, pp.144-145), and painting of Radha and Krishna in the Grove, circa 1720 (particularly the whispy tendrils of the hanging willow branches), and a scene of Krishna on a Hill-side, of circa 1720 (Archer 1973, vol.1, nos.10 and 11, pp.80-81, vol.2, p.53, nos.10 and 11).

Discussing Chamba style and patronage at this period, Archer comments that there was a strong cult of Rama prevalent in the royal family of Chamba and that images venerating Rama and illustrations from the Ramayana were particularly popular (Archer 1973, p.80).