ClassificationsAsian Art

Rama Shall be King?

Place CreatedRajasthan, India, Asia

CultureIndia, Mewar

Dateca. 1710

MediumOpaque watercolor and gold on paper

Credit LineGift of William E. Torres

Dimensions10 1/2 × 16 1/2 in. (26.7 × 41.9 cm)

Object number2013.012.001

Label TextBy birthright Rama should be king, but his claim to the throne is denied. Here, King Dasharatha, planning for the succession of his eldest son Rama, has sent the charioteer Sumantra to summon him. As is typical of Mewari style, the painting tells a sequential narrative with individual scenes separated by architectural motifs and blocks of color. It centers on Rama’s brief chariot journey across a sparse stylized field from his majestic home (right) to Dasharatha’s palace (left). In the assembly, Rama, seated reverentially below three brahmin advisors and the enthroned king himself, learns of his imminent coronation.

That coronation, however, will soon be interrupted by the plotting of Kaikeyi, one of Dasharatha’s three wives. Invoking two boons promised to her by her husband years earlier, she demands that the king banish Rama to the forest for 14 years and crown her son Bharata in his place. Bound by oath, Dasharatha complies before dying of grief.
Exhibition HistoryMCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, April 1 - October 27, 2014
Tell the Whole Story from Beginning to End: The Ramayana in Indian Painting, Michael C. Carlos Museum, February 20 - May 20, 2018
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, August 28, 2021 - Present

ProvenanceEx private collection, India and California, from at least 1970s. Purchased by MCCM from Bonhams New York, sale 20903, March 18, 2013, lot 80.

Status

On view

Collections