The Manasa Story (SEB Contracted)

Synopsis

2005. Bengal. Scroll-painting by Gurupada Chitrakar, paint on paper. Size: 108 cm long and 56 cm wide, the whole scroll is 168 cm long and 56 cm wide. Museum number 2006. 2-9. 01. This scroll tells the story of the snake goddess Manasa, Lakhindar and his wife Behula. Manasa kills Lakhindar to punish his father, her sworn enemy. Here, Behula takes Lakhindar’s body down the river on a raft. After a number of narrow escapes with the fish of the deep and humans on the river banks, she arrives at the court of the gods. The gods are so enchanted by her devotion that they agree that Lakhindar should return to life. The cobra in the centre of the painting suggests the power of Manasa. This is a brightly coloured, busy picture in vivid pink, blue, green yellow with black, brown and white is surrounded by a decorated border of pink flowers with green foliage on a yellow background. The snake goddess Manasa, who is depicted as a huge cobra, dominates the picture. The cobra is shown on a background of a blue river and is looking directly at the viewer with its body twisted first to the right and then to the left of the picture. The patterning on the body of the cobra is brown with alternate black and white markings with a strip of bold black and white horizontal stripes running down the centre. The snake has two small eyes and two short fangs. In the river, several animals (a crab, a turtle, a prawn and several fish) are shown on either side of Manasa. Half way down on the left-hand side, Lakhindar is shown fishing on the river bank, In front of him, depicted in the river, is his wide Behula, who is kneeling with the skull of a twisted skeleton in her lap. In the first twist of the cobra, Behula is shown kneeing with the head of her dead husband in her lap. In the top right-hand corner, the faces of six people are shown on the river bank. These people are looking down on Behula with her dead husband. The tactile image concentrates on the cobra with some detail on the right-hand side of the picture ie Behula sitting with her dead husband Lakhindar and a turtle. The rest of the images have been omitted but a braille label has been added to the image to explain their position. A key at the bottom of the page explains the labelling. Two parallel lines showing the decorative border edge the tactile image. The river is shown as parallel wavy lines. The banks of the river are shown as plain areas. The snake is outlined with a thick line, the head is solid texture with hollows for the eyes, the fangs are thick lines, the brown patterning is a light texture and the black and white stripes are alternating solid texture with plain between. The turtle is shown as a solid texture. Behula and Lakhindar are shown in outline with a rough texture with solid texture for their hair and the arms and feet of Behula. Braille labels: see key at the bottom of the tactile image.

Copyright:

2014

Book Details

Book Quality:

Excellent

Publisher:

RNIB

Date of Addition:

03/28/17

Copyrighted By:

RNIB

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

Science Fiction and Fantasy

Submitted By:

Alice Walsh

Proofread By:

N/A

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.