Overview

"The Sanskrit epic ""The Ramayana"" is, quite simply, the greatest of Indian epics - and one of the world's supreme masterpieces of storytelling. It tells how Prince Rama won the hand of the beautiful princess Sita, but was exiled with her and his brother for 14 years. During her exile Sita was carried off by the demon king Ravana, and Rama gathered an army of monkeys and bears to search for her. The allies attacked and killed Ravana, and rescued Sita. In order to prove her chastity, Sita entered fire, but was vindicated by the gods and restored to her husband. After the couple's triumphant return to Ayodhya, Rama's righteous rule (Ram-raj) inaugurated a golden age for all mankind.Among the greatest treasures of the British Library are five of the seven volumes of the illustrated manuscript of the Ramayana with originally over 400 paintings prepared between 1649 and 1653 for Rana Jagat Singh of Mewar at Udaipur in Rajasthan. The seven books of the Sanskrit epic were each illustrated on the grandest scale, with the paintings occupying the whole page in four different styles of Mewar painting, including two in the style of the studio master Sahib Din, whose signed work on the sixth book, ""The Book of Battles"", is one of the greatest works of seventeenth century Indian art. Unlike most such large series of Indian paintings, these have not been dispersed into various collections but remain intact. The huge scale of the project allowed the artists to focus on telling an epic story on the largest scale and the cumulative effect of seeing picture after picture packed with detail is overwhelming."

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9780712350136

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Jerry Losty was formerly Head of Prints, Drawings and Photographs, at the British Library's Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections, and is Curator of the major British Library exhibition on this subject.

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