Comparison between a warrior on painted terracotta plaques from Italy and a terracotta sculpture of Rama from India
Here I want to make a simple comparison between the ancient Italian depiction of an armed warrior with bow and arrows with his right hand raised, to the most ancient Indian depiction of Rama that is currently known. On these two painted terracotta plaques from the sixth century BC that you see on the bottom left, we observe a heroic warrior who closely resembles the Indian Rama sculpture of the Gupta period that we see on the right side. So this character whom I have shown twice, because he appears on two different terracotta plaques with the bow and arrow in a scene from ancient Italy, is striding confidently like a leader with a solemn expression and powerful torso (in both scenes). He is holding a bow and arrows in his left hand in both scenes as well. And you also see the right hand raised, and more demonstratively on the second pose (in the second scene).
So what are the common features between this ancient Italian painting of a warrior who looks like Rama, and the actual sculpture of Rama from India in the Gupta period? In the book Connected Histories of India and Southeast Asia, on page 136, we have the description of this sculpture: They write that “Rama here is very much a warrior hero, wearing a long tunic and channavira cross-belt, holding a bow in his left hand, and a quiver full of arrows on his back. The big eyes, thick lips, prominent chin, and unadorned ears bear a serious and purposeful expression. Of utmost interest is his oversized right hand, held in a gesture of protection from fear (or what is known as abhaya in Sanskrit). He is represented as a divine hero in this frame, the exact context for which is difficult to tell as the rest of the terracotta composition is damaged and lost. Rama in abhaya-hasta (which is the right hand gesture of fearlessness) is rarely seen in sculptures of the 4th to 8th century period, which makes this an even more significant example.”
So if we compare back to the ancient Italian painting, we can see many features that are in common, including the serious and purposeful expression, the oversized right hand in a gesture of protection from fear, as well as the bow and arrows in the left hand (or at least the bow in the left hand). And he is also standing tall, very confidently like a warrior hero, as he should in both the ancient Italian and ancient Indian depictions. So, honestly it’s hard not to conclude that the ancient Italian painting is also a depiction of the Indian hero Rama.
This excerpt that I just quoted from Connected Histories of India and Southeast Asia: Icons, Narratives, Monuments, is actually part of the Chapter Seven of that book, which is titled “Epic Visions in Terracotta, Stone, and Stucco: Ramayana in Indian Sculpture, Beginnings to 8th Century CE (or Common Era).” So within the book that I just cited, we have that chapter (7), and on page 136 I quoted the description of Rama that is being depicted in this sculpture from the Gupta period. So the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is the location where this sculpture is kept, and they have also added some information that this warrior hero “is identified as Rama by an inscription.” It’s inscribed “in the late Brahmi script of the 3rd to 4th century AD, or Common Era. Given that it’s attributed to the circa 4th century, this is believed to be the earliest extant definitive representation of Rama,” according to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
And even more interestingly, in the book that I just cited on page 136 of Connected Histories of India and Southeast Asia, the author also adds: “For all these reasons (that they cite in terms of the description of it), the Los Angeles sculpture of Rama, or ‘LACMA Rama’, needs more careful attention than he has thus far received.” And I would argue that the Italian Campana plaques kept at the Louvre museum, which you see on the left, should also be getting more careful attention than they have thus far received. These painted plaques are actually five in number, with characters from two of them displayed on this slide. I would argue that each of these two characters is a Greco-Etruscan rendering in Italy of the Indian warrior hero Rama.
Superficially, the main difference that you may observe between the ancient Italian and Indian representations of Rama is the facial hair - the Italian one is bearded, whereas the Indian one has a shaven face. But if we look closer at the Italian painting, we see an additional figure that is clean shaven, has the wings of a divine hero or god, wears the same white clothes as the adjacent bearded figure, and has basically the same facial appearance except for the beard. Thus, the Italian artist is probably indicating that both men are the same person, Rama. In this Etruscan terracotta plaque, the wings on the back of Rama also signal his divinity or special powers of flight like the Greek god Hermes. Similarly, according to the book (Connected Histories of India and Southeast Asia) on the Rama terracotta sculpture from the Gupta period, Rama “is represented as a divine hero”. The Gupta kings viewed themselves as incarnations or representatives of Rama on earth; the Italian aristocrats who commissioned these terracotta plaques may have viewed Rama as a role model and a divine warrior, like Heracles.
So to summarize some of the key points here, the claim that the terracotta sculpture of Rama from the 4th century AD is the earliest definitive representation of Rama may have to be revised one day, if and when it is accepted that these 6th century BC painted terracotta plaques from ancient Italy are also depicting the Indian hero Rama. And the gap in time, of course, is quite large. It almost spans one thousand years, which is quite mind-boggling. I mean, if you look at the gap in the centuries from the 6th century BC to the 4th century AD, we are literally looking at ten centuries, or one thousand years, or one millennium. So it’s definitely an astonishing gap in time, but that should not deter us from recognizing the obvious parallels between these two works of art, from Italy and India.
Another important point made about the Rama terracotta sculpture from the 4th century of the Common Era is its lack of supporting characters that are depicted alongside the main hero. The book author of Connected Histories of India and Southeast Asia writes that “the exact context… is difficult to tell as the rest of the terracotta composition is damaged and lost.” Luckily, we have many more painted figures preserved in almost their original condition on these two Italian terracotta plaques, which seem to be identifiable as Sita and Laksmana. This identification would confirm the theory that this is an ancient Etruscan or Italian representation of the story of the Indian Ramayana.
