Workshop: Ramayana Painting

Telling stories through ancient paintings is an interesting activity. It becomes more interesting when art classes in schools are involved. 

I visited a school in Tartu in November 2014 to show how ancient paintings have been used in postage stamps to tell the story of Ramayana. Students had a great time seeing the Ramayana paintings in stamps and trying to paint them.

https://raatuse.tartu.ee/et/uudised/2014-2015-uudised/436-ponev-kulaline-indiast-raakis-ramajana-eeposest

Do you want to learn storytelling Ramayana using drawing/painting? I created a Twitter contest DrawingAStory on Ramayana, where you can draw / paint stories of Ramayana using any genre of painting (ancient art, contemporary art, folk & tribal art, cartoons & illustrations, digital & new age art, etc). Selected drawings/paintings will be retweeted. Follow the steps to participate in the contest.

1. Draw / paint characters based on Ramayana

2. Describe the drawing/painting with a short text

3. Tweet the drawing/painting and the short text with the hashtag #DrawingAStory

Exhibition: Inspiring India (2014)

The Estonian National Museum Postal Museum exhibited my collection of postal stamps in September 2014, titled 'Inspiring India,' depicting several cultural heritages of India, such as the Ramayana. This exhibit showcased how this ancient tradition is still alive in various art forms in several countries through philately. 

https://www.filateelia.ee/india-inspiring-inspireeriv-india/

https://www.filateelia.ee/foorum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=4335

Online Exhibition: Storytelling Ramayana through Philately

I am fascinated by the power of storytelling for entertainment, education, and conservation. As a storyteller, I am particularly interested in understanding how stories were told in ancient times and what we can learn from them to enhance modern-day storytelling.

In this post, I will explore Ramayana storytelling traditions, their cultural significance, and how they have been preserved through art forms such as paintings and other cultural heritages such as Pattachitra, Mysore, Cheriyal, Madhubani, Thangka, Chitrakathi, Phad, Murals, Kamasan, to name a few. Ramayana feature stories about peace and war, to show the importance of moral values, bravery, and sacrifice. 

Here are some Indian pictorial narratives used to tell the story of Ramayana:

Painting_Genre	Characteristics
Madhubani Mithila	Wall art, simple geometrical patterns, symbolic images, drawing tools were fingers, twigs, brushes, nib-pens, matchsticks, natural dyes and pigments
Chitrakathi	Narrative scroll, used handmade paper, brush and natural colors, accompanied by musical instruments
Pattachitra	Narrative scroll, accompanied by songs, free-flowing and bold outlines, natural colors like white, red, yellow, and black with decorative borders
Phad Kavad	Narrative scroll, panels painting on horizontal cloth, natural colors like red, yellow and orange
Kalamkari Pattam Katha	Block-printed art form with a pen on fabric Cloth-based scroll painting storytelling
Kerala Murals	Vivacious imagery, bold strokes, vivid colors such as ochre-red, yellow, bluish- green, white
Thangka	Painted on cotton or silk cloth, themes were wall painting, lifestyle, rituals and practices of daily life
Mysore	Muted colors made of vegetable, mineral, leaves, stones and flowers, brushes made with squirrel hairs or pointed blades of grass, delicate lines and delineation of figures, lustrous gold leaf Gesso which is a mixture of white lead powder, glue, and covered with gold foil
Thanjavur	Panel paintings on wooden planks, rich and vivid colors, simple iconic composition, glittering gold foils overlaid on gesso work and inlay of glass beads and gems
Cheriyal	Narrative scroll, primary colours blue, yellow, with predominance of red in background, accompanied by musical instruments harmonium, tabla and castanets, well defined outlines, brushes made with hair of squirrels tied to a stick

The story of Ramayana has traveled from India to many other countries influencing their storytelling genres. Here are some global narratives based on the epic Ramayana which have remained a mainstay of storytelling using various art forms in various parts of the world.

Ramayana Version Name	Country
Yama Zatdaw	Burmese version of Ramayana
Reamker	Cambodian version of Ramayana which is also their national epic
Ramakien	Thailand version of Ramayana which is also their national epic. The walls of Wat Pra Kaew (Temple of Emerald Buddha) are decorated with mural paintings depicting stories from the Ramakien.
Maharadia Lawana	Philippines version of Ramayana
Hikayat Seri Rama	Malaysian version of Ramayana
Phra Lak Phra Ram	Laos national epic adapted from Ramayana
Ramakavaca Kakawin Ramayana	Balinese (Indonesian) rendering of Ramayana. Traditional paintings in Bali were mainly found what is known as the Kamasan or Wayang style. Kamasan is Bali's traditional style of painting once used to recite Ramayana.
Bhanubhakta Ramayana	Nepali translation of Ramayana
Janakiharan	Sinhalese translation of Ramayana. According to legend, Ravana had his mountain palace in Sigiriya, Sri Lanka, where there are ancient rock paintings.
Ramaensho	Japanese adaptation of Ramayana
Tibet Tibet China	Tibetan adaptation of Ramayana Chinese adaptation of Ramayana

My one frame exhibit 'Storytelling Ramayana through Philately' has been displayed online in 2014 at the American Philatelic Society online exhibits page https://stamps.org/