Rama and Lakshmana Overwhelmed by Arrows: Folio from the Siege of Lanka series ca. 1725 Attributed to Manaku "Rendering himself invisible by virtue of the boon he received from Brahma, [Indrajit, the son of Ravana].. loosened sharp arrows bright as lightening on Rama and [so] not a hair's breath on their bodies was not lacerated, pricked and pierced by these irresistible darts." The Ramayana tells us that the shafts resembled serpents, a metaphor the artist rendered literally, depicting writhing snakes covering the bodies of the two fallen heroes. Surrounding them are the distresse
Rama and Lakshmana Overwhelmed by Arrows: Folio from the Siege of Lanka series ca. 1725 Attributed to Manaku "Rendering himself invisible by virtue of the boon he received from Brahma, [Indrajit, the son of Ravana].. loosened sharp arrows bright as lightening on Rama and [so] not a hair's breath on their bodies was not lacerated, pricked and pierced by these irresistible darts." The Ramayana tells us that the shafts resembled serpents, a metaphor the artist rendered literally, depicting writhing snakes covering the bodies of the two fallen heroes. Surrounding them are the distressed monkey and bear armies that carry boulders and trees in preparation for their defense. In this unfinished preparatory drawing the artist, Manaku, brilliantly conveyed the essence of the narrative. We can only imagine how much more powerful a work it would have been if finished in the characteristically robust palette of the early eighteenth-century Guler style, as seen in Rama Releases the Demon Spies Shuka and Sarana and The Monkey Leader Angada Steals Ravana's Crown from His Fortress. About the Artist ManakuActive at the court in Guler ca. 1725–ca. 1760; son of Pandit Seu, brother of Nainsukh, father of two sons, Fattu and Khushala The painter Pandit Seu worked in Guler, Himachal Pradesh, and together with his two sons Manaku and Nainsukh, he dominated one of the most exciting periods of Pahari painting. Manaku remained more indebted to his father’s style, while Nainsukh studied Mughal painting extensively and left the court in Guler to work for other patrons. Manaku, the older of the two brothers, produced a true masterpiece in 1725, his illustrations to the last part of the Ramayana, the so-called Siege of Lanka series. In that work, he continued the large-format Ramayana series that his father had begun, developing new compositional solutions for the depiction of complex narrative scenes. The young Manaku painted with the sure hand of a seasoned practitioner, and his
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