picture (ritual & belief: representations)

Prayer picture made of paper, entitled Sharwan Kumar. This is a reference to Sharvan Kumar, an ideal son who appears in the Ramayana. Here he is depicted carrying his blind parents on a pilgrimage in two baskets. Above within roundels are depicted later scenes from the story in which King Dasharatha kills Sharwan, having mistaken him for a deer while out hunting, and giving water to Sharwan's two parents as he had requested with his dying breath. Below in two roundels are scenes showing Dasharata's son Rama before he is sent into exile in the forest for fourteen years, and Dasharatha dying of grief for the loss of his son, as Sharwan Kumar's parents had predicted.

object
MUSEUM NUMBER
1993.200
PLACE
COLLECTION
MEASUREMENTS
overall: 164 mm x 113 mm
MATERIAL/TECHNIQUE
paper
CATEGORY
Anthropology: Ethnography
LOCATION
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Collection Information

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