"The Death of King Dasharatha, the Father of Rama", Folio from a Ramayana

Unknown

ca. 1605 · Opaque watercolor and gold on paper · Islamic Art

King Dasharatha emerges in the Ramayana as essentially a noble character, though flawed by the weakness that allowed him to be swayed by his second wife Kaikeyi, whose ambitions for her own son caused the king to banish the crown prince Rama for fourteen years. Having succumbed to this pressure, Dasharatha, plagued by regrets, took to his sickbed, where he eventually died of grief. The sorrow of his queens and female attendants is conveyed by their disheveled hair and by the cradling of their cheeks in their hands.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 1605

Medium

Opaque watercolor and gold on paper

Department

Islamic Art

Credit line

Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon B. Polsky Fund, 2002