3-056-755 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana in the forest, c1652. (Forest dwellers and a hunter). Men and women gather in front of a small house by a river - quivers of arrows hang from the roof. Laksmana hunts for deer on Rama's instructions, so that they may make offerings to the presiding deities of the place. Laksmana cooks the venison on skewers rather than boiling it as in the text and Rama makes the offerings. Sahib Din, again contrary to the text, depicts the two brothers eating while Sita waves a scarf over the food; and she then retires to the hut to eat her own meal. This picture demonstrates the format used by Sahib Din for a forest landscape, with a river at the foot of the picture, a foreground surrounded by trees where the action takes place and a backdrop of vertically striated purple rocks. From the Mewar Ramayana.