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63<br />
AN ILLUSTRATION TO THE LANKAKANDA <strong>OF</strong> THE SHANGRI RAMAYANA SERIES:<br />
RAMA AND LAKSHMANA BOUND BY INDRAJIT’S WEAPON<br />
POSSIBLY NURPUR OR BAHU, PUNJAB HILLS, EARLY 18TH CENTURY<br />
Opaque pigments on paper, the two brothers shown lying still holding their bow and bound with snakes,<br />
the monkey and bear generals looking over and conversing with Jambavan and Vibishana, the monkey<br />
army on the move in the background, in white rules, with wide orange borders, with fy sheet<br />
8¬ x 12ºin. (22 x 31.2cm.)<br />
£15,000-20,000 $22,000-28,000<br />
€19,000-25,000<br />
On the frst day of the battle of Lanka, Indrajit despatched the vanara armies of Sugriva. Impatient<br />
to avenge his father and brother’s death he called for Rama and Lakshmana to come forth on the<br />
battlefeld. Using a powerful weapon consisting of a multitude of snakes he shackled and subdued<br />
them. Both fell to the ground unable to move or breathe. Hanuman, the monkey general, called upon<br />
Garuda, Vishnu’s vehicle, to intervene and free the two brothers from their reptilian bonds.<br />
The ambitious project of the Shangri Ramayana included several illustrations of this episode in the<br />
fourth book known as the Lankakanda or Yuddhakanda. For another illustration of this same episode in<br />
the Lankakanda from the Shangri Ramayana see Andrew Topsfeld Ed., In the Realm of Gods and Kings:<br />
Arts of India, London, 2004, no.49, pp. 130-31). A further folio from the same Shangri Ramayana series<br />
was sold at Christie’s New York, 19 March 2013, lot 309.<br />
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