Summary: The numerous examples of ancient Italian water vases in full color from the Etruscan city of Cerveteri stand in sharp contrast to the Caeretan hydria in Boston (c. 525 BCE). Despite the lack of color photography, Rama and Laksmana can be positively identified as the two hunters on the front side, and Sita can be positively identified as the lady being abducted by Ravana on the back side.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vmv4wFLYimo
So in this short presentation I want to discuss the possibility that an ancient Italian water vase, which is technically called a hydria, is depicting an episode from the legend of Rama. It is one of only 30 to 35 vases from a particular workshop in Cerveteri, Italy that have been discovered in the last 200 years. Thus, they are incredibly rare works of art, and the world deserves to know about all of them, three of which I have displayed here for your viewing pleasure in color. This terracotta pottery has a distinctive brownish-orange color. Many of these Caeretan hydriae, as they are called, are kept at various museums, many of which are world famous, such as the Louvre in Paris, British Museum in London, and the Villa Giulia Museum in Rome. Some are also housed in American museums, including the one Italian hydria that I will be analyzing in the next few slides.
This example below which has two painted sides from Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts is not only rare because it is one of 30 to 35 vases of the same type still intact, but also likely the only one surviving among them that depicts an Asian Indian mythological scene. Boston’s MFA does not realize how valuable and rare an artifact it is, and how marketable it can be to put it on view based on this fact and its appeal to South Asian visitors. There really is no excuse, given the prestige of the Boston MFA and its size, that they have not put this Caeretan hydria on view and they have not made color photos of this painted terracotta vase available. It is clearly a “very important”, rare, and early vase, judging from Hemelrijk’s commentary. Not making it viewable essentially sends the message that the western world should completely ignore this work of art, without any justification.
Most of the Caeretan hydriae that are relatively intact or not heavily fragmented are either on display in a major museum or have color images available for viewing online (or both). I would estimate that 30 of the vases qualify as relatively intact. Of these 30 vases, about 25 can be tracked down for the purposes of extensive study in color. The only exceptions seem to be this Boston hydria, and a few other obscure examples from museums in distant locales such as New Zealand and Denmark.
Finally, the Caeretan hydria in Boston is therefore likely the only non-fragmented vase that is neither on display nor has color photos available of it online. I am not a conspiracy theorist, but I do think they are hesitant to make this vase more public because of their inability to correctly interpret its mythological content. The curator of South Asian art at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in the United States (also called the Boston MFA) is Laura Weinstein. And I actually corresponded with her briefly, and she admitted, quote: “It’s interesting that no subject has been identified for this vase.” This admission means that the Boston MFA does not value the Dutch expert Jaap Hemelrijk’s assertion above that “this is a very important hydria,” and “one of the earliest of all” and therefore should be studied more carefully. I do value his statement, however, and so should anyone interested in ancient art and history.
Before diving into the examination of this Boston hydria, I just wanted to give you another set of Caeretan hydriae from some of the most important museums in the world: New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art which you see on the left, Rome’s Villa Giulia Etruscan Museum in the middle, and London’s British Museum on the right. The one in the middle at Rome represents the popular Greek myth of abduction where Zeus, disguised as a bull, carries Europa away. The Indian myth of the golden deer chase and Sita’s abduction in the Ramayana is the subject actually of the Boston hydria, which I will now analyze.
Now these are black and white photos of the front side of the Boston hydria, in which you see two young men hunting deer. Notice that they both are aiming to shoot their arrows at the same time, which is common iconography in Indian art of the same event. In this event Rama and Laksmana are often painted together (or Rama is painted alone) while aiming an arrow at either a fleeing deer with two heads, or a fleeing deer in multiple running poses. This is what we would call the famous golden deer episode of the Valmiki Ramayana. Unfortunately, one classical scholar named Cornelius Vermeule completely misunderstands the nature of the two figures and calls them “wild men who have horses’ ears but no tails."
This blatantly misleading statement, as you can see in the graphic pointing to the human ears above of the lead character, is exactly the type of remark that makes me concerned about the sincerity of these historians, most of whom are European (or of European descent). This totally wrong assertion appears in the periodical called The Classical Journal, Volume 64, in November of 1968. To my knowledge, it has never been condemned by any of his colleagues.
In my opinion, the two male heroes hunting deer with bow and arrows are none other than the Indian protagonists Rama and Laksmana. The author Hemelrijk carefully notes: “The bow of the first hunter is double-curved (Scythian type) and at both ends provided with a separate string-hook… The bow of the second hunter is like that of the first hunter; its string is seemingly painted over his left arm, but was covered by the white of the skin… The skin of the second hunter was white… His anatomical details are exactly like those of the first hunter.”
In the Valmiki Ramayana, Laksmana is well known for being lighter skinned than his dark and powerful older brother Rama. They are like twin brothers and they are divine incarnations in Hindu tradition. Laksmana accompanies Rama in all his activities. The same type of Scythian bow is also visible on contemporary scenes on the Campana plaques that were also found in Cerveteri. In both artworks, the terracotta hydria and the terracotta painted plaques, I would identify the male hero as Rama. You can see one of the Campana plaques here on this slide, in between the sketch of the hunters Rama and Laksmana and the isolated image of them from the Caeretan hydria with no background.
So just to summarize, Hemelrijk’s observations accord well with the description of the two heroes Rama and Laksmana in the Valmiki Ramayana, whether it be the similar anatomical details, or the same Scythian bow, or the fact that Laksmana is lighter skinned than Rama, which may be the most important detail.
Now these are black and white photos of the back side of the Boston hydria, and they depict two male-female pairs on each half in an abduction sequence. The two pairs of characters are probably Ravana and Sita, with Ravana abducting Sita by grasping her arm on the right and then carrying her off in the next scene to the left. This episode in the Ramayana happens concurrently with the deer hunt by Rama and Laksmana, so it makes perfect sense for it to be painted on the reverse side of that main hunting scene.
Notice the two girls or nymphs are not distinguished easily from one another, whether it be their dresses or facial expressions - both “less pleased”, as Hemelrijk realizes, but due to ignorance of myths outside the Mediterranean world, he cannot fully complete his intelligent observation. He writes that the two girls are “being carried off by formidable satyrs”, which again indicates that the two satyrs are virtually indistinguishable with their beards, long hair, large heads, and horse-like features. Thus, we can conclude that each nymph is Sita and each satyr is Ravana. Hemelrijk also adds that the lady on the right “defends herself against the assault by menacing with her fist”, which is an unusual display of resistance. In the Ramayana, Sita strongly rejects Ravana’s sexual advances, but he eventually takes her away while her husband Rama is still distracted with the task of hunting the golden deer.
The classical scholar Cornelius Vermeule, whom I cited earlier, does recognize the possibility of a connection between the two painted sides of the Boston hydria, which are the deer hunt on one side and the abduction on the other side. However, he wrongly associates the young men hunting deer on the obverse side with the satyrs on the reverse side. He calls the satyrs “older friends” of the young hunters, but the truth is that the satyr Ravana is the enemy of Rama because he abducts his wife Sita. The satyrs have horses’ ears but no tails, whereas the young men have completely human bodies. Even though he is incorrect in this aspect, Vermeule at least sees a relationship between the front and back sides of the Boston hydria. His description of Ravana “dancing away with an acquiescent nymph”, i.e. Sita, on the left half of this back side is not totally accurate, as Sita is forcibly taken away against her will and Ravana’s arm around her chest signifies his need to keep her from escaping.
So she has not really surrendered but is nonetheless unable to free herself. Now to summarize, the maenad or nymph in both scenes here can be identified as Sita, who also had white painted skin before the paint was lost, according to Hemelrijk. The fact that Laksmana and Sita were originally painted with light skin and Rama was painted with dark skin matches exactly with painted depictions in India of these three characters from the Ramayana. So the question, “Are Rama and Sita (and Laksmana) featured on an ancient Italian water vase?”, as improbable as it may seem, it can be answered with a positive YES.
Regarding the small collection of extant water vases called the Caeretan hydriae, the most famous museum in the world, the Louvre in Paris, has the greatest number of artifacts in this pottery group. There are a large number of painted terracotta vases, with six shown here, from Cerveteri, Italy in the Louvre museum, and France is not hesitant to allow us to see them in color. As you can tell, many of them feature animal hunts, including deer, lions, and boars. These hunt scenes sometimes occur within a mythological narrative, such as Atalanta’s hunt of the Calydonian boar in Greek legend.
If the Boston Museum of Fine Arts is confident that the Caeretan hydria in their possession is merely another hunting scene with no mythological context, why hide it from the public view? The truth is that they know it is a mythological scene, but they are afraid of the consequences of acknowledging Indian or Asian influence on ancient Italy. Their reasons may include protection of European or western cultural supremacy and avoidance of any changes or additions to our understanding of world history that are seen as too controversial or hard to fully corroborate. An ancient Italian inscription with the name ‘Rama’, which has never been discovered of course, might be the only remedy that forces these institutions to abandon their ignorance.
