Some Illustrated Valmiki Ramayana Manuscripts

Abstract

The many manuscripts of the various versions of the Ramayana include a much smaller number of illustrated manuscripts, besides the frequent sets or series illustrating the Rama story (often termed manuscripts, though lacking more than a caption or brief description of the scene depicted). I focus here on a small number of illustrated manuscripts of the Valmuki Ramayana: one datable around 1605–19 in sub-imperial Mughal style commissioned by Bir Singh Deo, one dated between 1649 and 1653 for Jagat Singh of Mewar, and three sets of illustrations which seem intended to form between them a third illustrated manuscript: the small Guler and Mankot Ramayanas and Manaku’s ‘Siege of Lanka’ series, from about 1710 to 1725. The issues that I address are: why were such extensive and expensive manuscripts undertaken, what was the nature of the text copied, and what is the relationship of text to illustration, in terms of how a scene is illustrated and of its correct identification? Exploration of these issues can reveal a significant amount about the patrons, the scribes, the illuminators and the society of the period when such manuscripts were produced.