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London: After having been hidden away in the vaults of the British Museum for 164 years, more than 100 paintings from the Ramayana, dating back to the 17th century, went on public display on Friday at the British Library's central London galleries.
The Mewar Ramayana paintings were acquired by the then British Museum Library in 1844 in the form of bound volumes, but were only available to scholars.
When their condition began to deteriorate, the British Library had the paintings individually framed. They are part of 400 paintings and 24,000 verses of text in Sanskrit bound in seven volumes, of which the British Library has four, exhibition curator Jerry Losty said.
Secular text
"I am thrilled that we are able to display the magnificent Mewar Ramayana manuscript. One of the finest manuscripts of the Ramayana epic ever produced, it vividly illustrates this great story," Losty said.
"This is one of the great secular texts of world literature. Its influence spread not just across India but the whole of Southeast Asia and endures to this day."
The exhibition, titled "The Ramayana - love and valour in India's great epic", is expected to draw large crowds - from art lovers to academics and schoolchildren - before it ends on September 14.
The nearly 120 paintings on display were given by Rana Bhim Singh of Udaipur to Colonel James Tod, a historian of the Rajputs, who brought them back to London in 1823 and presented them to the Duke of Sussex before the British Museum Library acquired them in 1844, a library spokesperson said.
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