Setubandha - Rama and Lakshmana crossing the Bridge to Lanka with the Monkey Army

After Sita, the wife of Rama, the prince of Ayodhya, is abducted and kept captive in Lanka by the King of demons Ravana, Rama, aided by an army of monkeys decides to wage a war against the demon king. Upon reaching the end of the landmass, a huge ocean prohibits Rama’s journey across to the island kingdom of Lanka. Rama worships the god of the ocean Varuna, requesting him to make way for the army. Varuna informs Rama that within his army a monkey named Nala, the son of the divine architect Vishwakarma is blessed by his celestial father, and has the ability to create a huge bridge for the monkey army to cross over to Lanka.

In this exquisitely drawn page the artist depicts the scene when Nala has built a bridge across the vast ocean to Lanka, and an unending sea of monkeys traverse the bridge snaking into the horizon. Within the mass of figures, Rama and his brother Lakhmana are highlighted as they ride on the backs of monkeys, with Rama seated on the back of the chief of the monkey army, the mighty Hanuman himself. A monkey behind Rama sways a fly whisk over Rama’s head emphasising his royal status.

The use of an oblique perspective with strong diagonals and the suggestion of receding planes and diminishing figures meandering into the horizon, impart a wonderful dynamism to the painting.

One is struck by the immaculate drawing, fineness of detailing and the treatment of the figures. Despite the dense crowding of figures, individual characters are expressed by the diverse gestures that animate them. The monkeys are depicted with remarkably intense expressions. Purposeful and grim, their strength and agility is wonderfully expressed through their musculature and stance of the bodies in movement as they crouch and spring, the curvature of their backs rendered with naturalistic precision and fluidity.

The background is indicated through fluid undulating strokes indicating the hills with gentle slopes on the outskirts of the palace city at Lanka. The monkey army marches on, over the bridge to the distant hillocks in the island of Lanka where they have pitched tents for the army. In the distance on the far right the artist gives us a glimpse of the magnificent palaces of Lanka as a complete contrast to the small tented spaces occupied by Rama’s army.