Indian painting of Rama learning from hermit in the forest
About this photograph
- Creator
- Margery H. Freeman
- Date created
- Unknown
- Location
- India
- License
- This photograph copyright ©2006. Terms of use
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This Indian painting shows Rama being educated by a hermit in the forest. The figures shown in the painting are dressed in red clothes, and the background color is a bright golden yellow.
Three women, perhaps the hermit’s wives, sit and work to the left of the bearded hermit who sits in the center holding a string of prayer beads. To the right of Rama, who sits in the center faceing the hermit, are Sita who is kneeling behind Rama, and Laksman, who stands behind Sita holding his and Rama’s characteristic bows and arrows. All the women are dressed in Indian saris, jewelry, and nose ornaments. The men too wear Hindu Indian-style wrapped pants.
In the Ramayana tale (and in Hinduism and Buddhism more generally), hermits who dwell in the forest often are considered bearers of great wisdom and spiritual knowledge. Forest hermits help Rama and Sita repeatedly during their difficulties.
Early in the Ramayana story, Rama’s father sends the young Rama and his brother Laksman to be educated in religion and the arts of war by famous hermits living in the forest.
