The Ramayana 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, 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 their kingdom.
This episode is from Book 4 (Kishkindha kanda) when the Monkey-King Sugriva and his troop of monkeys become alarmed when they see the well-armed Rama and Lakshmana enter their forest. This folio likely illustrates the monkeys rushing to consult Sugriva as narrated in verses 9-10: "Leaping from mountain to mountain and making the mountain peaks tremble with their force, they reached a meeting place. And then all those powerful, leaping monkeys shattered the flowering trees that stood there on the mountain pass." (Ramayana 4:2:9-10).
The Hindi inscription added later in the header states, "All the monkeys rush towards Mount Rishyamuka." (Translation by Stephen Markel.)
This painting, and its series mates M.74.5.11, M.77.19.22, M.83.105.9, and M.91.348.2, are from a widely dispersed large series known as the “Shangri” Ramayana, so called because it was formerly in the ancestral collection of the Shangri branch of the royal family of Kulu, Himachal Pradesh.
