The Adventures of Rama

To rid the world of the evil, ten-headed Ravana, the Hindu god Vishnu appears on earth as a heroic prince, Rama. The devotion of his brother Lakshman, his marriage to the beautiful Sita, and encounters with demons, giants, sages, and holy men form favorite episodes familiar to any Hindu child. Taken from the holy text, the Ramayana, these stories conclude with Rama's efforts to rescue the kidnapped Sita, aided by Hanuman, leader of an army of monkeys. The Adventures of Rama retells and lavishly illustrates these incidents using original paintings from a 16th-century Mughal manuscript in the collection of the Freer Gallery of Art. The author, Milo Cleveland Beach, is the former director of the Freer and Sackler Galleries. Although based on Hindu religion and taken from the 500 B.C. Ramayana, this story book is really all about marvels. Lavishly illustrated with enlargements of miniatures painted during the reign of Akbar the Great. Ages 7-12 will love the fanciful monsters and the unrealistic gore in some paintings.  62-page hardback book with color illustrations on each page.

Museum Provenance

As Smithsonian museums, the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery hold in trust the nation’s extraordinary collections of Asian art and of American art of the late nineteenth-century aesthetic movement. Our mission is to encourage enjoyment and understanding of the arts of Asia and the cultures that produced them. We use works of art to inspire study and provoke thought.

Every Smithsonian purchase will arrive with a museum provenance card explaining how it is adapted from or inspired by an object or objects in our collection.