An illustration from a Ramayana series: Ravana meeting Vishnu, attributable to Purkhu and his family workshop, North India, Kangra, circa 1800-20

The multi-headed king of Lanka, Ravana, is depicted being held captive by a group of young men carrying sticks and stones as they approach a palace. The blue-skinned deity Lord Vishnu is first shown seated in a front chamber of the palace and then conversing with Ravana outside the palace, before Ravana leaves through a doorway. The Devanagari inscription on the reverse suggest that this is an episode from the first book of the Ramayana, the Bala Kanda, which deals with the childhood of Rama and his marriage to Sita. In Valmiki’s version of the Ramayana, Ravana only appears much later, in the Aranya Kanda and the Yuddha Kanda which are the third and sixth books of the epic. This may have been an illustration to a regional version of the Ramayana, or perhaps the artist is suggesting through this unusual sequence of events that Ravana was aware of the divine nature of Rama, an avatar of Lord Vishnu.

For a brief discussion on the master artist Purkhu and his family workshop, see lot 190. For three other paintings from the same series in the present sale, see lots 190, 191, and 193.