Ramcharitmanas [The Story of Lord Rama],

The Ramacharitmanas is an epic on the life of Lord Rama, based on the ancient epic Ramayana by Valmiki, assembled by the poet Tulsi Das in the sixteenth century. It narrates the story of the life of Rama, the Crown Prince of Koshal, and the stories relating to him and his three brothers Laxman, Bharat and Shatrughan as well as Rama's wife Sita the Princess of the Kingdom of Janaka.

Tulsi Das (c. 1523-1623) was a Hindu saint and poet renowned for his devotion to the deity Rama and his in-depth understanding of the Sanskrit language. During his lifetime he sought to make the story of the life of Lord Rama more accessible to the general public, whose understanding of their ancestral language of Sanskrit was diminished, by authoring this retelling of the well-known Ramayana in the vernacular language of Awadhi. Greeted with great success and popularity, this Ramacharitmanas continues be considered one of the greatest works of devotional Hindu literature and has been acclaimed as being the most important work of Indian medieval poetry. A summary of the full text of the Ramacharitmanas is available upon request.

The Awadh school was a development of the later Mughal style with Rajput influences, sometimes referred to as the 'later provincial school of Lucknow'. The style began to emerge in the mid-eighteenth century and continued through to the turn of the nineteenth century, with Lucknow as the primary centre of production after a decline in patronage at Delhi saw Mughal artists move elsewhere for work. Painters of this genre often depicted ragas, raginis, stories from Hindu mythology, portraits of local nobility, and the style is best recognised for the myriad of colours often endorsed in a creative and visually stimulating manner. Following on from the Mughal tradition they are also painted with intricate craftsmanship and a great attention to detail. Though the present miniatures are characteristically Awadh which was firmly associated with Lucknow production, there is a possibility that they were painted in nearby Varanasi, where the patron Maharaja Udit Narayan Singh was based.

The present miniature is remarkable for its effortless naturalism, delicacy of line, the splendour of colour, and intricacies of decorative details and subtleties. Softness while depicting vista and characters are one of the prominent attributes of the Awadh school of miniature painting. Seven painters from this period have been recognised as artists dedicated to this Awadh school of painting, these are Gajraj Singh, Asaf Ali Khan, Ghulam Mustafa, Mohammad Masud, Mohammad Wazir, Hasan Ali and Ali Khan (Amir Hasan, Palace Culture of Lucknow, India, 1983, pp. 16). This style of painting is often limited to a 50 year period (roughly from 1750 to 1800) and although there is no known artistic attribution to the present manuscript, there is a very high possibility that one of the above named artists is responsible for the fine miniature paintings present here. For more information on the Awadh school of painting and the above artists, see Preeti Awasthi, Awadh School of Painting- Miniature - a new genre of expression, IRJMSH, vol. 6 issue 1 (2015).

The manuscript would have been produced at great expense. The size of the page and use of high-quality thick buff paper indicate a level of quality that would not have been commonplace during this period. The script to the reverse of the page has been copied in a very regular and neat devanagari script, indicating the presence of a practised courtly scribe, and the quality of miniature painting is exquisite and undoubtedly executed by a master at the time. Furthermore the attention to detail is breathtaking, and of the other folios of this manuscript that have been traced, each and every one of the borders around the miniatures and script are present in a different design.

Illustration This fine illustration depicts a scene from the chapter Lanka Kand, verse 26. There are multiple scenes depicted in this image, comprising Ravan, the king of Lanka is sitting in his durbar with his council of ministers in his golden city within the golden walls (top left); Kumbhkaran, the brother of Lanka king Ravan is sleeping in his bed chamber (top right); The money army of Rama is attacking outside the walls of Lanka (centre); Rama and Laxman are sitting with the Bhivishan and giving instruction to Hanuman (bottom right); Battalions of monkeys getting war ready (bottom left).