Fragment of scroll-painting / 'pata' in eight registers, depicting scenes from the 'Ramayana': Rama in his forest exile fighting a demon; Rishyashringa and the 'rishis' reading the five omens; the marriage of Rama, Lakshmana and their two brothers; etc. Unusually, the episodes are not shown in the logical narrative order. Each register is separated from the preceding one by a floral scroll. Painted on paper and mounted on modern card. Torn at both edges. Glazed.

Curator's comments:
Scrolls such as this were used as visual props in storytelling performances.

The legend of Rama forms the basis of the great Indian epic, the 'Ramayana'. This story is known throughout India and has very many regional variants and a huge number of individual parts. The basic thread of the narrative, which has an inordinate number of sub-plots, diversions and disgressions, tells of King Rama, his exile to the forest, his triumph over demons, the capture of his wife Sita by the demon Ravana who lives in far-off Lanka, and then - after many adventures, not least with the monkey general and hero, Hanuman - the final defeat of Ravana. Following this, Rama and Sita are reunited and they return to the city of Ayodhya to their rightful rule.

The legend of Rama has mostly been enjoyed in Bengal through oral transmission. In the cities recitations of the 'Ramayana' episodes were given by professional reciters as part of a wealthy person's good works. In the countryside the stories were often told by itinerant storytellers using picture scrolls; these narrators, still occasionally seen today, are known as 'patuas' and have a distinctively high-pitched declamation called 'patua-sangit'. Several examples of 'Ramayana'-based scrolls survive (see also BM 1955.1008.096). In the last two centuries these orally transmitted versions have run concurrently with painted editions of Krittivasa's 'Ramayana' (from 1802) and with translations into English (from 1806).

© Trustees of the British Museum