- Title
- The Abduction of Sita, Folio from a Ramayana (Adventures of Rama)
- Date Made
- circa 1675-1700
- Medium
- Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper
- Dimensions
- Image: 7 7/8 x 14 3/4 in. (20 x 37.46 cm); Sheet: 10 1/8 x 16 1/4 in. (25.71 x 41.27 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.86.345.3
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
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 Hindi inscription in the header, this illustration from Book 3 (Aranya kanda) depicts a key episode in which Ravana kidnaps Sita by slaying the king of the vultures, Jatayu, who had attempted to rescue Sita but only managed to destroy Ravana’s aerial chariot drawn by donkeys (Ramayana 3:48-50). In the lower center of the composition beside the wreckage of Ravana’s chariot, the mortally wounded Jatayu crouches with some of his variegated feathers cut off by Ravana, whose demonic mahout lashes Jatayu with his whip. Above them, the twenty-armed Ravana flies off clutching Sita to his chest and brandishing weapons with his remaining arms. On the left, Rama and Lakshmana arrive at the scene of the tragedy and listen to Jatayu’s tale of Sita’s woe (Ramayana 3:63:13-18).
- Selected Bibliography
- McGill, Forrest, ed. The Rama Epic: Hero, Heroine, Ally, Foe. San Francisco: Asian Art Museum, 2016.
