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Date uploaded in London – –   17 APRIL 2024                 

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The Intriguing Story Of The Book Of Gold – The Ramcharitmanas Exhibition At MAP , Bangalore

“Book of Gold: The Kanchana Chitra Ramayana of Banaras” at the Museum Of Art And Photography (in Bengaluru)  unveils a grand 18-year artistic project (1796-1814) that transformed Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas into a dazzling masterpiece with 548 lavish illustrations, all richly gilded. This exhibition showcases 80 folios, offering a unique glimpse into a lesser-known version of the Ramayana. It’s not just art; it’s a testament to history’s influence on art, with unexpected details and socio-political commentary.

Step into the museum and head to the third floor. Start your journey into the ‘Book of Gold: The Kanchana Chitra Ramayana of Banaras‘ exhibition from the Axis Bank Gallery.

Through your earphones : Notice his body – a celestial blue, his halo and chakra, or discus blazing with golden flames, clad in yellow robes and glittering jewels, this cosmic form of Rama towers over the landscape— A line from the exhibition’s audio guide.

The story in the “Book Of Gold” is a retelling of the Ramayana—specifically, it is an illustrated edition of Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas,

The Kanchana Chitra Ramayana of Banaras, created between 1796 and 1814 by artists from various schools of art. The book contains about 548 accompanying text pages and 1100 folios with pure gold in the painting. 

In the year of his ascendancy to the throne, 1796, Benares King Udit Narayan immediately commissioned the project to create an edition of Tulsidas’s magnum opus into another magnum opus—comprising illustrations that were liberally inscribed in gold. There is gold all over this book… in the decorative page margins, within the paintings and in the punctuation marks.

So, this project was initiated on Ramanavami in 1796.

Not only was the project expensive—comprising 1,100 folios adorned with 548 paintings, all lavishly gilded—but it was of considerable significance in terms of the artistic craft. With the gathering of artists from many regions, schools and disciplines—Awadh, Delhi, and Murshidabad, provinces in Madhya Pradesh—Banaras was abuzz with artists. And they worked collaboratively on the book for 18 years and it was done in 1814.

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Ramcharitmanas

Inspired by divine visions and blessings, the saint and poet Goswami Tulsidas began the composition of the Ramcharitmanas. He wrote it over a period of several years, and they say he finished it around 1574.

Tulsidas’s epic—indeed a retelling of another epic—is considered to be not only a religious text but also a literary masterpiece that has had a profound influence on Indian culture and spirituality.

Significantly, Tulsidas chose to write the Ramcharitmanas in the Awadhi language. This is for several reasons, but principally to make it popular and more accessible among the common folk.

Sanskrit—the classical language in which the original Valmiki Ramayana was written—was not commonly understood by the masses. By using Awadhi, a language spoken by the people in a part of North India, he ensured that the epic could be understood and appreciated by a wider range of individuals, including those who were not well-versed in classical languages.

At MAP (Museum in Bangalore) , the “Book Of Gold: The Kanchana Chitra Ramayana Of Banaras” exhibition is a curated, and wondrous, display of 80 folios from the book, that showcase the book’s seven sections, designed to explain the depth and breadth of Udit Narayan’s glittering project.

Several of these folios are packed with a cast of hundreds of characters. A visual feast with so much detail that—it is estimated that some of them would have taken months to create and complete. Thus, the 18 years it took to complete this project, not to mention the astonishing cost of the exercise (over Rs 150,000?) is understandable.

Tamil Nadu has its own version of the Ramayana called the “Kamba Ramayana,” written by the Tamil poet Kambar. The Kamba Ramayana is highly regarded in Tamil literature and culture, and it presents the Ramayana story in a way that resonates with the Tamil-speaking population.

In Karnataka, the popular versions of the Ramayana would be the “Kumudendu Ramayana” (a Jain version), written in 13th century and the “Kumara-Valmiki Torave Ramayana”, written in the 16th century. There is another version titled “Ramachandra Charita Purana” written by Nagachandra during the 13th century. (There is also a rather tenuous link to the influence of 10th century Jain poet Ranna, author of the Ajitha Purana, but that is to chase down another rabbit hole.)

EVENT LISTING. https://bangalore.explocity.com/events-in-bangalore/book-of-gold-the-kanchana-chitra-ramayana-of-banaras-z9hf/

Museum of Art and Photography’s (MAP) listing in the  Explocity Bangalore Guide: https://bangalore.explocity.com/bangalore-guide/listing/museum-of-art-photography-map-museum-site/

—subham—

Tags- MAP, Kanchana Chitra Ramayana, Bangalore,