The Ramayana (Adventures of Rama) narrates the epic saga 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.
According to the inscribed labels on the reverse, this illustration from Book 1 (Bala kanda) depicts the birth of Rama’s younger brothers, Bharata, Lakshmana, and Shatrughna (Ramayana 1:17:7-9). In the pavilion on the left, Kaikeyi gives birth to Bharata. In the pavilion on the right, Sumitra gives birth to Lakshmana, and Shatrughna. Maidservants are in attendance.
This folio is from a dispersed Ramayana series. Additional folios from the series are in the Bharat Kala Bhavan, Varanasi. The colophon on BKB folio #6809 states that the series was painted for Hira Rani, who is identified with Hira De, the wife of Raja Pahar Singh of Orchha (r. 1641-1653).
