Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c10.27

c10.27

In two other instances Râma's demon adversaries had lifelike portraits made, but the context clearly shows that this branch of sculpture was considered to belong to the black rather than to the fine arts. The first was when Ravana wanted to beguile his unhappy captive Sîtâ into believing that Râma was dead. He ordered a skilful craftsman to make a lifelike model of Râma’s head, which was brought in to Sîtâ, who, “seeing the severed head, and finding in the complexion of the face, in the eyes, in the hair, and in the jewelled knot, a likeness to her husband, and recognising it by all these signs and marks, became exceeding sad, and crying like a *kurari*, denounced Kaikeyi bitterly” (*Lanka Kanda*, chap. 32).