An excellent masterpiece by Kailash Raj, one of the best-known and most skilled contemporary painters adept in India’s centuries-old classical art style of painting, the miniature represents Ravana, Lanka’s demon king in the great epic Ramayana, shaking Mount Kailash in an effort to uproot and move it from its place.
Not merely that the painting portrays one of the many events that revealed Ravana’s inflated ego and Lord Shiva’s kind-heartedness, grace, and benevolence- a myth, legend, or sheer imagination of the painter.
It reveals the universality of a wicked mind that targets, first of all, its own benefactor, from whose bounties it got all its powers and abilities to pride itself on.
As is the case in the related myths, it was with Lord Shiva’s blessings that Ravana had all his undefeatable powers, but the moment Shiva does not concede one of his desires, he turns hostile and seeks to challenge Shiva himself.
As the body of myths has it, Ravana had undergone many rounds of rigorous penance dedicated to Shiva and had won from him many rare, undefeatable powers and skills, such as those of an accomplished poet, architect, and invincible warrior. He was one of Shiva’s great devotees, but he considered himself to be the greatest among them. The conceited Ravana thought that he was closer to Shiva than his sons Karttikeya and Ganesha, and even his consort Parvati, and did not hesitate even in slighting them. He composed a ‘Stotra’ – a long verse consisting of many stanzas lauding Lord Shiva and dedicated it to him. Lord Shiva admired it.
Lord Shiva, along with his family, lived on the peak of Mount Kailash, sheltering under trees and protecting against the cold with fire. An accomplished architect, Ravana, to further please Shiva, planned to build a majestic palace for him and his family. Lord Shiva was disinclined, but Ravana felt that Shiva’s consort Parvati had an inclination for it. He came back to Lanka and built a great palace, all consisting of gold, for Shiva and his family. He wanted to shift from Kailash to Lanka. After the palace was complete, he visited Kailash and prayed to Shiva to shift to Lanka along with his family.
Shiva declined and was unwilling even to go to see it once. Ravana thought that once Shiva saw the palace, its splendour would surely bewitch him. He hence uprooted the palace and carried it to Mount Kailash and laid it on its peak. Rare in majesty and splendour, the palace fascinated all, Parvati and her mother Maina most, as Maina was always sad for her daughter for not having a roof over her head; however, Shiva was indifferent to it as before and did not even go to see it where it lay. A vicious mind, Ravana noted Parvati’s weakness for it and, believing that under her pressure Shiva would shift to it wherever it is, he brought it back to Lanka, though to his disappointment it did not happen.
As he believed that he was Shiva’s greatest devotee and hence Shiva was obliged to give his prayer top priority, Shiva’s disinclination to Shift to Lanka enraged him, and he decided to uproot Mount Kailash along with Shiva and his family and shift it to Lanka. Scriptures apart, the theme begins appearing in visual arts from early times, one of its early examples seen at the famous ninth-century Kailash temple at Ellora in Maharashtra. Its examples are seen also in medieval paintings. A miniature of circa 1750-60 from Nurpur, a small hill state, one of the lesser known but as powerful a centre of Pahari painting, represents the theme quite powerfully and vividly, illustrating not only the legend but also the state of minds of all, even their mounts.
This most accomplished painting of Kailash Raj pursues the idiom and details of this Nurpur painting in their exactness, and though a contemporary piece, it has the same flavor and freshness as has the Nurpur miniature. Contained within an oval frame over a vertical canvas, with an outer frame defining its length and breadth, some straight rising rocks with a couple of trees and a green patch of land on the top define Mount Kailash. A mound-shaped green patch on the bottom, where the ten-headed Ravana is engaged in shaking the mountain, defines the root of Mount Kailash.
On the Mount’s top, Lord Shiva is seated on a tiger skin laid under the two trees. Behind him is seated Parvati clad in deer skin. She is also covering her head with a fur cap. As the Mount shakes, Parvati holds Shiva’s thigh. Karttikeya and Ganesha rush to the Mount’s end parts to know its reason; a shadow of anxiety reflects on the faces of the bull and lion, the mounts of Shiva and Parvati, and, with his meditation disrupted, Shiva raises his left leg and presses the foot to let the Mount settle into its place, crushing Ravana under it and liberating him from his vanity.
This description is by Prof. P.C. Jain and Dr Daljeet. Prof. Jain specializes in the aesthetics of ancient Indian literature. Dr Daljeet is the chief curator of the Visual Arts Gallery at the National Museum of India, New Delhi. They have both collaborated on numerous books on Indian art and culture.
Send as free online greeting card
Email a Friend
Visual Search
Manage Wishlist