Bharata Returning to Ayodhya with Rama's Padukas (Sandals)

This is a Jaipur-Datia mixed style painting made on paper using natural colours. It depicts a scene from Ramayana in which, despite Bharata's great persuasions, Rama did not return to Ayodhya from forest. Instead he commanded Bharata to go back and look after Ayodhya, its people and rule the kingdom during the years of his exile. Bharata prayed to Rama to give him his padukas and to allow him to install them at the Ayodhya's throne and rule by them. Finally, he returned with Rama's padukas, installed them on the throne of Ayodhya and ruled the kingdom on the behalf of Rama, and that too, not from Ayodhya but Nandigrama, a nearby village. Here he lived like an ascetic till the return of Rama. Bharat has remained as the model of brotherly love, affection and devotion for Hindus over the centuries. In this painting Rama's padukas are being brought back to Ayodhya on a profusely decorated royal elephant in a grand procession of chariots, horses and palanquins. Behind the elephant in a chariot Bharata with his younger brother Shatrughna, and on the other, sage Vashishtha with sage Vamdeva are seen. The artist Guman painted two types of palanquins - white for Rama's three mothers because they were widows, and red, being symbolic of those women whose husbands are alive, for the three consorts of his younger brothers. The well-drawn various architectural dimensions are clearly indicating the architecture of Jaipur city which was built by Sawai Jai Singh of Jaipur in 1730 AD. The presence of camels and its riders conspicuously reminds that this painting is from the desert land of Rajasthan.