Gold illustrated ‘Kanchana Chitra Ramayana’ created by artists from various schools of arts is on display at Bengaluru Museum
An illustrated edition of Tulsidas’ Ramcharitmanas with pure gold painting has 1,100 folios, created by artists from different schools who converged in Banaras between 1796 to 1814.
The project was commissioned by Maharaja Udit Narayan Singh of Banaras, who transformed the now famous 31-day Ramnagar Ramlila.
There’s no dearth of handsomely illustrated Ramayana manuscripts produced in royal courts One of the most well-known ones is the Mewar Ramayana commissioned by Maharana Jagat Singh in Rajasthan.
As per art historian Parul Singh, “Kanchana Chitra Ramayana had 548 illustrations facing every textual page, While some of these paintings are true to the verses, artists often had to get creative during log crosses.”
Parul Singh, art historian and researcher specializing in pre-modern visual and material culture with a focus on South Asian art, says there was no skimping on the use of gold.
The artists then change the architecture, facial expressions, placement of figures keeping central figure untouched.
“The amount of gold used was not funny. Not just in the illustrations, it was there between the lines of the calligraphy, the margins, you name it,” says Singh, who is co-curating the special exhibition called ‘Book of Gold: The Kanchana Chitra Ramayana of Banaras’ at Bengaluru’s MAP.
This is the time when you have the most lavish and ambitious artists-led project of the kind ever seen. And that too from Banaras when most of these activities were concentrated in places like Jaipur, Mewar or Marwar,” says Singh who points out how there is now a renewed interest in the cultural contributions of smaller rulers like Udit Narayan Singh.”
It is through their cultural pursuits and patronage of artists and scholars that they acquired a sheen of power again,” adds Singh.
