- Title
- Sugriva Sends Emissaries, Led by Hanuman, to Find Princess Sita
- Date Made
- circa 1830-1840
- Medium
- Opaque watercolor, gold, and silver on paper
- Dimensions
- Image: 10 3/8 x 15 1/4 in. (26.42 x 38.74 cm); Sheet: 16 x 20 7/8 in. (40.64 x 53.09 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2006.128
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
This painting is from a well-known series of paintings that were produced in the north Indian hill kingdom of Kangra and dispersed by at least 1972 or 1973. The dramatic series is characterized stylistically by its wonderfully humanized monkeys, stylized rock formations, crisp decorative detail, and large-scale illustrations.
The works depict episodes of the ancient South Asian epic poem, the Ramayana (Adventures of Rama). The scene depicted here is from the Kishkindha Kanda (4:40) when the Monkey General Hanuman sets out with a band of valiant simians in search of the kidnapped heroine, Princess Sita. Hanuman has been sent on his quest to the southern regions by the Monkey King Sugriva, who sits enthroned in his palace within the Rishyamuka mountain in the forest kingdom of Kishkindha, which is near Hampi, Karnataka.
A compositionally identical but stylistically distinct illustration of this scene from Nalagarh is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (1981-3-1).
