Observe the image and answer the following question.
What does this folio, attributed to Sahibdin, portray?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Indrajit’s devious tactics and use of magic weapons in war
Option (1) Indrajit’s devious tactics and use of magic weapons in war — Correct. This is the Yuddha Kanda, the Book of Battles, of the Jagat Singh Ramayana (1652). Sahibdin uses an oblique aerial perspective and layers several battle episodes into one painting.
Option (2) Krishna toppling the cart demon Shakatasura with a gentle kick — Incorrect. This scene ends a Bhagvata Purana folio in the Malwa style. That folio shows the festivities after Krishna’s birth in compartments.
Option (3) Rama meeting members of his family at Chitrakut — Incorrect. This is the Ramayana painting by Guman (1740–1750). It is a continuous narrative set among huts in the woods.
Option (4) Dhola and Maru escaping together on a camel — Incorrect. Dhola and Maru on a camel appear in the Maru Ragini of a Mewar Ragamala set. It is a ragini painting, not a war scene.
NCERT (2026-27): “Mewar School of Painting …Attributed to ingenious artist Sahibdin, Yuddha Kanda, the Book of Battles, is a chapter in the Ramayana set of paintings, popularly referred to as the Jagat Singh Ramayana. Dated 1652, Sahibdin, herein, has crafted a novel pictorial device that of oblique aerial perspective to impart credibility to the ambitious scale that war pictures encompass. Deploying various narrative techniques, he either layers several episodes into a single painting as this one, or spreads a single episode over more than one folio. This painting portrays Indrajit’s devious tactics and use of magic weapons in war.”
Yuddha Kanda of Ramayana, Sahibdin, Mewar, 1652, India Office Library, London |
