2-738-952 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Rama’s Brothers Bharata and Shatrughna set out from Ayodhya to find Rama and Lakshmana in the forest to inform them of the death of their father Dasharatha, 1775-80. The artist has masterfully set the somber procession against the stark white walls of the city. The rigid horizontal planes magnify the seriousness of the occasion. The king has died of sorrow for having been obliged to send his favorite son Rama into exile. Rama’s two youngest brothers, in the middle of the page wearing gold crowns, are setting out from the capital to find Rama, hoping to persuade him to return now that their father has died. A vignette showing how daily life still goes on is included at the upper right, where bullocks turn a water wheel made of clay pots to irrigate the fields.