An illustration to a Ramayana series: King Dasharatha prepares for Ashwamedha (the Horse Sacrifice), India, Rajasthan, Mewar, circa 1690-1700

This is an illustration from the Bala Kanda, the 'Book of Childhood', which is the first book of Valmiki’s Ramayana. King Dasharatha is depicted standing on the right, speaking to four sages and asking them to perform an Ashwamedha yagya (the horse sacrifice ritual) to please the gods as he had no heirs. After the yagya was performed, Dasharatha was blessed with four sons, Rama, Bharata, Lakshmana and Shatrughana.

This folio belongs a widely dispersed series which would have been produced during the reign of Maharana Amar Singh II (r.1698-1710) in Mewar. For an equestrian portrait of the ruler in the present sale, see lot 50. The series has been variously dated from 1640 to 1720. Another folio from this series is in the Arthur Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC (S2018.1.73; see Diamond and Khera 2022, no.6, p.70, ill. 80-81). A folio from the same or a similar Ramayana series is in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (M.86.345.3). Other related folios are in the Cleveland Art Museum, Ohio (2018.142); Walters Art Museum, Baltimore (W.888); the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (IS.118-1954), among other public collections.