Rama's battle wagon, South India, Southern Andhra Pradesh, mid-18th cenetury

Ink and watercolour on paper, Telegu inscription at top edge

Indian Drawings and Painted Sketches, 16th through 19th centuries, Asia House Gallery, New York; Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge; Asian Art Museum of San Francisco; the Avery Brundage Collection, 1976

Welch 1976, p. 29, no.
Zebrowski 1983, p. 221, no. 192

Significant losses to the outer edges of the paper, laid down on linen. As viewed.
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This illustration is painted in the distinctive South Indian style characterised by black outlines enclosing thin washes of colour typically in red and green. Strong parallels exist between these paintings and 17th century South Indian painted textiles (Gittinger 1982, pp.89-125). Very little is known about South Indian book painting due to the majority of manuscripts remaining in devout hands, however this illustration relates closely to a Ramayana manuscript in the State Museum, Hyderabad. Jagdish Mittal, who studied and dated the manuscript to the mid 18th century, attributed it to Southern Andhra, "probably from Anantapur, Chittoor, Cuddapah, or Nellore districts" (Mittal 1969, p. 36). The manuscript was produced by Telugu-speaking Reddi and Vallama castes who were descendants of the region's pre-Islamic rulers. The area south of the Krishna River and the Andhra coast east of Hyderabad was a Hindu stronghold.

In the catalogue accompanying the 1976 exhibition Indian Drawings and Painted Sketches, 16th through 19th centuries, Cary Welch described the painting as follows:
"arrows zing through the air, wounding and killing many, who pile up at the bottom of the page. Others boldly shoot arrows or find shelter behind the wagon's housing. The expressions of the human and monkey heroes are varied and acute; some are intrepid, others justifiably anxious. A highly skilled professional artist has combined reverence with humorous worldly observation.' (Welch 1976, p.29)