Window mode follows your eyes with your camera, in this browser only: no picture or position leaves your device.

Khadgaroma, Son of Ravana

c. 1720

Medium: Gum tempera, ink, and hand-colored silver paper appliqué on paper
Classification: Painting
Dimensions: Overall: 39.7 x 27.6 cm (15 5/8 x 10 7/8 in.)
Culture: Southern India, Andhra Pradesh
Museum: Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Credit line: Gift of William E. Ward in memory of his wife, Evelyn Svec Ward
Rights: Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it: Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed

About this work

Blades fan around the figure of this demon, illustrating the meaning of his name: he whose “body hair is swords.” To further emphasize his favorite weapon, he clutches a broad curving sword in his right hand. The inscription at the bottom identifies him by name in the local language of Telugu, but a section has been pasted upside down, indicating that the owner of this page did not read the script. The inscription has been translated into French at the top. Territories in southern India were under French colonial control from 1692 to 1761.