The Ramayana narrates the legendary life and times of the valiant Prince Rama and his dutiful wife, Princess Sita, who was abducted by Ravana, the arrogant ten-headed King of Lanka (probably modern Sri Lanka), during Rama's unjust fourteen-year forest exile from his capital of Ayodhya (near Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh). To rescue Sita, Rama and his faithful brother Lakshmana assembled a great army of monkeys and bears led by the Monkey-King Sugriva and his Monkey-General Hanuman. After several magical battles, the princess was freed, and the happy couple triumphantly returned home to rule Ayodhya. Rama and Sita epitomize the ideal ruler and the paragon of fidelity in traditional Hindu culture. This partially damaged folio and its set mate M.82.6.6 are from a dispersed subimperial Mughal manuscript of the Ramayana painted in circa 1595-1600. It was likely created for a high-ranking Hindu affiliated with the Mughal court, which can be deduced by the Ramayana passages on reverse being inscribed in Sanskrit rather than Persian. Both folios depict episodes set in the Kishkindha Forest with the same protagonists, but they express a vastly dissimilar emotional intent and were likely done by different artists (compare the variances in garb and physiognomy between the two figures of Rama). Here, the agitated postures and anguished expressions of the monkeys aptly convey the shock of Rama’s dharma-bound act of slaying Vali, who had seduced Sugriva’s wife.

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