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The Monkeys and Bears Fight Ravana and His Demons (verso), from a Romance of Chandrabhanu and Lavanyavati of Upendra Bhanja (Indian, died 1740)

late 1700s

The Cleveland Museum of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States

This leaf from an 18th-century romance manuscript comes from a section of the book that retells the epic battle between the demon Ravana and the god-hero Rama. The 10-headed multiarmed demon Ravana is the second figure from the right. Rama’s army of monkeys and bears, wielding tree branches and clods of earth, fill the remainder of the leaf. The images were created using a stylus that incised into the palm leaf; charcoal was then rubbed over the leaf and wiped off, leaving only the incised areas in black.

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  • Title: The Monkeys and Bears Fight Ravana and His Demons (verso), from a Romance of Chandrabhanu and Lavanyavati of Upendra Bhanja (Indian, died 1740)
  • Date Created: late 1700s
  • Physical Dimensions: Overall: 4.8 x 40.2 cm (1 7/8 x 15 13/16 in.)
  • Provenance: (Terence McInerney, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Type: Painting
  • Rights: CC0
  • External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/1979.21.b
  • Medium: Charcoal on palm leaf
  • Inscriptions: on both recto and verso in Oriya
  • Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
  • Culture: Eastern India, Odisha
  • Credit Line: Edward L. Whittemore Fund
  • Collection: Indian Art
  • Accession Number: 1979.21.b
The Cleveland Museum of Art

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