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Sugriva challenges his brother Vali, King of the Forest Dwellers, to a duel, folio 10 from the Kishkindha Kanda (Book of Kishkindha) of a Ramayana (Rama’s Journey)
c. 1700–1720
- Medium
- Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Painting: 16.4 x 26.8 cm (6 7/16 x 10 9/16 in.); Overall: 20.7 x 31 cm (8 1/8 x 12 3/16 in.)
- Culture
- Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Credit line
- Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
In a morally ambiguous scene, the white monkey Sugriva calls to his brother Vali, the rightful king of the forest-dwellers, to emerge from a cave. Behind him, the blue hero Rama hides with his brother and monkey ally Hanuman. Clutching a deadly three-pronged arrow, Rama prepares to slay Vali, so Sugriva will rise as king and be obliged to help locate Rama’s lost wife.
Paintings from this series illustrate a local Himalayan Ramayana. Their distinctive style incorporates rock formations and textiles reinterpreted from Mughal sources, probably brought to Nurpur when the Mughal emperor retreated there during the hot season.
