Jagannatha, Balabhadra, and Subhadra represented as Rama, Balarama and Sita
Not on view
The painting depicts Jagannatha and Balabhadra seated at ease, accompanied by their sister Subhadra. Whilst paintings of the Jagannatha triad are typically represented within a uniform iconography, here the seating attitudes along with a different set of attributes points to a reference to the Ramayana epic. Both the male characters carry weapons, a bow and arrow, as Rama and Balarama did during their exile in the forests of southern India, pointing to their identities here as another Vishnu aspect, that of Rama and Balarama. On the throne platform upon which the three divinities appear is depicted an array of divine and human worshippers, including Garuda, Brahma and the knelling figure of Hanuman, who reaches up to reverently touch the foot of Rama, which projects over the edge of the platform.
