Comparative study of Demons motif in the miniatures of the Freer Gallery's Ramayana manuscript with the previous and simultaneous examples from the iconographic perspective

During the Gurkanian (1526-1857), especially in Akbar Shah period, was gaven much attention to the spread of culture and arts. One of the services of Akbar Shah era was the translation of Sanskrit books into Farsi and illustrating of them. One of this manuscripts, illustrated Ramayana book that is available at Freer's Art Gallery is the battle story of Ramchander, the seventh manifestation of Vishnu with Ravana, who is the greatest demon. The examining of influence of the motif of the demons in the Ramayana manuscript of the Freer Museum, both previous and contemporary texts have been selected as the main question of this research. The purpose of this research is to carry out the iconographic matching of the image of demon and its place in the Ramayana manuscript of Abdul Rahim Khan with the sample of previous and similar texts in the India. Study was conducted by descriptive, historical-comparative method and the results indicate that the motif of the demons in the research manuscript, have been depicted in the four forms of the demon with recurred members, animal, human, and combination (human-animal).In previous texts, demons are portrayed in a combination form. In the simultaneous texts, the main characters of the epic are most often depicted in the form of humans and other characters in a combination form.

Demons as evil and harmful creatures have always played a significant role in the myths and cultures of different nations. In the Indian texts too, we see from the outset a strong presence of various demons and the struggle of the gods for their destruction. In the epic era, Raksheses are the biggest demons which have introduced in the three epics of Mahabharata, Puranaha and Ramayana. Among the most popular of the Indian epics, Ramayana is the story of the Battle of Ramchandra, the seventh manifestation of Vishnu, with the great demon of the time, Raven. This version was prepared by Abdul Rahim Khan Khanan(1557-1626)  (mansouri 1394:192). During the Gurkanian period (1526-1857), especially in Akbar Shah period, interfaith relations expanded, which also gave rise to interactions in the art of this period. The Ramayana version of the Washington Freer and Sackler Gallery is one of the works that show the extent of Persian language and Muslim services influence on the Indian religious culture (seyller, 1999: 46). Its paintings are notable for their widespread presence of demons and a great variety of their character designs. Studying the demons can reveal the realities of the unknown periods of human life, cultures, beliefs, and... The Ramayana paintings of the Freer Gallery are an example of the bold presence of demons in the Islamic period. Research questions include: What is the position of demons in the Indian texts? What was the impact of the demon's role in the Ramayana's version of Freer's gallery of earlier and contemporary visual texts? What are the characteristics and similarities and differences of Ravenna's images in the Ramayana version of the Freer's gallery and other prior and contemporaneous manuscripts? The purpose of the present study is to study the iconography of the image of the demon and its place in the Ramayana version of Abdul Rahim Khan and to examine the similarities and differences of the demons in the sample of earlier and contemporary texts in the Indian land with the demons in the selected version.

The present study is fundamental research and has been done by descriptive and historical-comparative method. The method of data collection is library-based, with text reading, capturing and collecting images and its analysis is qualitative. The authors have introduced and described the features of the twenty-two main demons of the Ramayana epic, illustrated in forty-four illustrations of this edition. To examine the similarities and differences between these demons and demons in earlier texts, motifs of the Ramayana in various temples of India were selected from approximately 600 BC to the 12th century, and contemporary texts with selected text depicted in the 17th and 18th centuries, were also used.

Ramayana is the story of fight of the seventh manifestation of Vishnu, Ramchandra with the great devil, Raven. The appearance of the demons in the Ramayana version of the Freer Gallery can be divided into four categories: 1. Demons with repeated members.in this version, Raven and Tersera depicted with reproduced organs. 2. The animal-shaped demon, that Mariche is the only demon depicted in the animal form. 3. human-shaped demon, which is only Indrajit, depicted in one image with a completely human anatomy and appearance and  4-hybrid demons that most demons in this version are in the form of hybrids (human-animal).The appearance of the demons in the pictorial texts before the Ramayana version of the Freer Gallery, given the prominent templates, indicates that the majority of the text demons before the study version have anatomical and fully human features, and demons with hybrid feature were not found. Due to the appearance of the demons in the visual texts at the same time as the Ramayana version of the Freer Gallery- most of them are in Rajput styles-most of the main demons are in the form of the human. Raven is the main demon of the epic. He is depicted in most pictures with a plurality of two members of the head and hands, all of them have human figures and their number is ten. The number of hands in the samples varies. In all the texts studied, Raven is depicted with two human legs.

The answer to the first question is that demons as harmful creatures have been present in Hindu religious and epic texts from the beginning. The main demons in the Indian texts are: the Asuras, the Danves, the Ditias, nagas, Pishachas and the Raksheses.To answer the second question, you should refer to the results of the surveys:The demons depicted in this edition are divided into four groups: the demon with numerous organs, the demon with animal form, the demon with human form, and the demon with hybrid (animal-human) form.According to statistics, most of the demons have been depicted with hybrid organs, and the demon with the goat and human head, followed by the demon in the form of cats and hybrids, followed by the demon with the head of the dragon, more than others. All demons have human hands. The most prolific form of the eye is human eye, followed by the dragon. They are sometimes depicted with the animal eye. Most demons have two horns. The most frequent form of ear is in the form of a goat ear, followed by an elephant. Most demons have tails and in some cases do not. The most frequent form of legs is the human foot and the bird's claw. Of course, some of the demons are depicted with elephant legs or compound legs of elephant feet and bird's claws. Most of the demons have depicted with their teeth out.In the previous texts, epic demons can be divided into three groups of repeated member demons, demons in animal form, and demons in human form.Studying contemporaneous pictures with the selected version revealed that most of the main demons were depicted in a fully human anatomy and the demons fighting for the Raven had a human-animal hybrid form. Also the hybrid demons in this edition all have fully human organs and animal or hybrid heads. So, in answer to the second question, it can be said that the painters of Abdul Rahim Khan's workshop did not influence by the previous demon samples in designing of hybrid demons and because of their different design than their contemporary ones, they may not only have influenced from them but also influenced them.Raven's images in the earlier and concurrent examples were not significantly different from those in the case study, and the differences are only in details. He is depicted in most images with a plurality of two members of the head and hands, and the heads are all in human form, often in numbers of ten, and in other specimens have less numerous. The head style of the most texts is five heads to the right and five heads to the left, but in some cases this style changes. In the all of the texts which studied, Raven is depicted with two human legs. So, in answer to the third question, it can be said that the artists of all three texts have been faithful to the story text in the design of Raven's character with its reproduced members. Since the examples of demons, creatures and deities with repeated members are abundantly found in Indian art and civilization, it seems that the artists in the study and simultaneous manuscripts have been influenced by the earlier examples of Ravenna's character design.