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Rama and Sita enthroned (recto), from a Kalighat album

c. 1890

Medium: Gum tempera, graphite, and ink on paper
Classification: Painting
Dimensions: Painting: 31 x 25.6 cm (12 3/16 x 10 1/16 in.)
Culture: Eastern India, Bengal, Kolkata, Kalighat
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

Rama has been crowned king upon his return to Ayodhya at the end of a 14-year exile, having rescued his wife Sita from imprisonment on the island of Lanka. King Rama still holds his signature emblems of bow and arrow. His brother Lakshmana, here shown as green like Rama, holds the insignia of royalty, a flywhisk. Another brother holds the royal parasol. Hanuman, Rama’s semidivine monkey general, prostrates himself before the couple.

Devotees who travel to the Hindu temple at Kalighat could purchase a painting of this type to commemorate their visit and to adorn a domestic altar.