Lot 81
AN ILLUSTRATION FROM THE 'NADAUN' RAMAYANA: LAKSHMANA ATTENDING TO SITA IN A HILLY FOREST
INDIA, PUNJAB HILLS, KANGRA, CIRCA 1800-20
Auction: 10 December 2025 from 14:00 GMT
Description
gouache on paper heightened in gold, red border within black and white margin rules, the scene from bottom left depicts Lakshmana's white-horse drawn carriage attended by a groom, across the river, Lakshmana, dressed in yellow with his characteristic crown and bow and arrow, is turning left towards Sita, the upper right hand side shows Laskhmana fanning Sita to sleep, a large red wing can be seen in the upper right hand corner, all against a hilly and wooded landscape with wild deer and tigers, with short inscriptions in black and white ink, twenty-five lines in Sanskrit on the reverse, mounted, glazed and framed
Dimensions
34.2cm x 43.6cm
Provenance
The property of a Lady.
Footnote
The Nadaun Ramayana is characterised by its large landscape size and bright red border, its hilly and wooded landscape, often portraying a river such as in this example. It is known as Nadaun because it emerged from the Nadaun prinicipality, one leaf of which is in the Himachal State Museum, Simla. Further extent folios are in the Brooklyn Museum (accession number 75.203.2), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (AC1999.27.45), and the National Museum of New Delhi. Another formed the collection of Jane Greenough Green, see Pleasure Gardens of the Mind: Indian Paintings from the Jane Greenough Green Collection, exhibition catalogue, 1993, no. 15.