Resumen de Narrating Animals on the Screen of the World
Ramayana episodes sculpted as narrative ornamentation on a ninth-century Hindu site in Central Java do not seem to follow any one version of this ancient Indian epic. Close readings of the reliefs' animal characters uncover a structural logic associated with another literary epic, which in turn reveals the political ambitions of the temple’s patron. Many indigenous metaphors and artistic conventions are also found to be integrated within this pictorial narrative. Thus, by deviating from earlier studies of these narrative panels and interpreting previously elided elements, we gain new insights into a complicated and understudied period in Javanese art history.
