An Occidental Diwali: San Francisco Museum Retells the Ramayana

Think the Ramayana holds significance still for the contemporary world? This museum in San Francisco thinks so too.

This museum is bringing the fabled epic to the western world in a whole new way. (Photo Courtesy: Asian Art Museum)

Hanuman’s flight to the Himalayas, Ravana’s wives weeping over his limp body... and a vibrant ten-headed mask with a live dancer as the central head.

These are some of the vivid artworks on display in San Francisco this winter.

Because, starting this Diwali, the Asian Art Museum has taken up the herculean task of covering the length and breadth of the Ramayana in a three-month-long multimedia exhibition. All to let the western learn more deeply the fable that's embedded in the contemporary world.

Starting this Diwali, the Asian Art Museum has taken up the herculean task of covering the length and breadth of Ramayana in a three-month-long multimedia exhibition.(Photo Courtesy: Asian Art Museum)

‘The Rama Epic: Hero, Heroine, Ally, Foe’ is being held between October 2016 and January 2017 at the well-known San Francisco museum and constitutes 135 artworks. As the core team of researchers and curators divulge, the chief goal was to communicate how Ramayana “has continually impacted art and performance for ages and remains incredibly relevant even today.”

It was, however, the somewhat ‘lesser understanding’ among the Western audience that excited the team to work harder on the exhibition.

‘The Rama Epic: Hero, Heroine, Ally, Foe’ is being held between October 2016 and January 2017 at the well-known San Francisco museum and constitutes of 135 artworks. (Photo Courtesy: Asian Art Museum)

They might have heard of the Ramayana but hardly know about the epic or its significance. At the same time, even in the US, we are surrounded by the story’s influences. The mainstreaming of popular Indian cultural practices like yoga, which has poses named on characters in the Ramayana – like the ‘monkey pose’ or Hanumanasana – in their own way demonstrate its universal relevance and appeal.

<b>Dr Forrest McGill, curator of the exhibition and director, Research Institute for Asian Art</b>

The exhibition has put together artworks created in Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist contexts across southern Asia – and borrowed from museums in Europe, the UK and the US. (Photo Courtesy: Asian Art Museum)

At a time of socio-economic turmoil between most countries, the exhibition has put together artworks created in Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist contexts across southern Asia – and borrowed from museums in Europe, the UK and the US.

“So in terms of museum exhibitions, it’s quite unprecedented in its breadth and depth. But then, there has never been another epic from any other culture that has taken such centrestage before,” he says.

From the Perspectives of ‘The Four’

The most interesting part is that McGill and team have approached the Rama epic from the perspectives of the four main characters of Rama, Sita, Hanuman and Ravana rather than through a linear storytelling.

This offers an opportunity for South Asian families in and around San Francisco to reconnect with this familiar story – and with each other – by exploring historical and contemporary retellings together. In addition, because of the wide geographic scope of the exhibition – encompassing all of southern Asia – every visitor gets to see how artistic traditions and conceptions of the four protagonists evolved across cultures and time periods, which has never been done before.

<b>Dr Forrest McGill, Curator of the Exhibition and Director, Research Institute for Asian Art</b>

Hanuman flies to the Himalayas for magical herbs, page from the Mewar Ramayana, 1649–1653, by Sahibdin (Indian, active approx. 1625–1660). (Photo Courtesy: Asian Art Museum)

Among the rare gems are eight examples of the remarkably large and detailed paintings from the ‘Mewar Ramayana’ as well as two of its Sanskrit text pages on loan from the British Library – shares Nandan Shastri, an Ahmedabad-based curator who has collaborated in the mammoth project. These were commissioned by a Hindu king while the chief artist was Muslim. They’re from the Golden Age of Indian court painting, and could be the most sumptuously illustrated version of the epic ever, with as many as 450 paintings originally made between 1649 and 1653.

From this collection also, is the ‘Mourning for the death of Ravana’, a splendid painting showing Ravana’s many wives weeping over his body and underscoring him as a multifaceted character who was as beloved as he was feared.

Mourning for the death of Ravana, and preparations for his funeral, from the Mewar Ramayana, 1649 – 1653, by Sahibdin (Indian, active approx. 1625–1660). Opaque watercolours on paper. The British Library, Add. MS 15297(1) f.173r. (Photo Courtesy: Asian Art Museum)

Another wonderful piece is the glorious, three-tiered ‘Theatrical mask of Ravana’ that comes from the Smithsonian in Washington DC. There, it is the crowning glory of a set of royal gifts bestowed in honour of America’s 1876 centennial by the King of Siam (whose father was so memorably depicted in <i>The King and I)</i>. With nine heads (the tenth being the live dancer’s) stacked on top of one another, the work is made of a kind of papier-mâché and is a rare example of a gilded theatrical mask surviving for almost 150 years, having escaped tremendous wear-and-tear.

<b>Dr Forrest McGill, curator of the exhibition and director, Research Institute for Asian Art</b>

Hanuman conversing, 1000–1100. India; Tamil Nadu state, Chola period (880–1279). (Photo Courtesy: Asian Art Museum)

Three Chola-dynasty bronzes of Rama, Sita and Hanuman, ‘Hanuman conversing’, a large bronze dated to 1000-1100 borrowed from the Metropolitan Museum in New York and The Rama Epic Live, an original film that explores performance traditions like dance and drama from villages, cities to TV made by Indian documentary director Benoy Behl and commissioned by the museum – there’s much for the avid museum enthusiast to see.

From a curatorial perspective, it’s great to showcase a huge variety of artworks, some in traditional ‘museum’ media like painting and some that are completely new to Western audiences – like the videos and the performances from Bali, Cambodia and North India. This is, in many ways, a multimedia exhibition because Ramayana has been a multimedia tradition for 2,000 years: it’s always been danced, performed, sung, puppeted. All of that is still going on today, but now we also have TV series, video games, movies, and comics. It just continues to inspire.

<b>Dr Forrest McGill, curator of the exhibition and director, Research Institute for Asian Art</b>

“This is, in many ways, a multimedia exhibition because Ramayana has been a multimedia tradition for 2,000 years,” says Dr Forrest McGill. (Photo Courtesy: Asian Art Museum)

(Runa Mukherjee Parikh has written on women, culture, social issues, education and animals, with The Times of India, India Today and IBN Live. When not hounding for stories, she can be found petting dogs, watching sitcoms or travelling. A big believer in ‘animals come before humans’, she is currently struggling to make sense of her Bengali-Gujarati lifestyle in Ahmedabad.)