Prashant Keshavmurthy
Two Pages from the Ramayana Made for Akbar’s mother, Hamidah Banu Begum, Mughal India, ink, gold and opaque watercolour on paper, 37.8 x 24.9cm (page), MSS 955.1–2
Rāma’s tale was retold around fifty-one times in the Persian language. One of the versions, admired in its time for its metaphors, is Mullā Masīḥ Pānīpati’s Dāstān-i Rām o Sitā, completed in the 1600s and dedicated to the Mughal Emperor Jahangir. It is a masnavī or poem in end-rhymed couplets that traces, in 132 chapters, the main plotline of Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇa.
Join us for an illustrated talk by Prashant Keshavmurthy, an associate professor of Persian-Iranian Studies in the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University. He will shed light on Masīḥ’s Persian Ramayana, how the text portrays Rama as a prophet prefiguring prophet Muhammad. The talk will compare passages from Masīḥ’s Persian version with those from Vālmīki, and incorporate Mughal paintings from various Persian Rāmāyaṇas.
Bookings are closed for this event.
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