Hanuman Bearing the Sanjeevani Mountain, Oleograph

Chromolithographic oleograph depicting Hanuman bearing the Sanjeevani mountain, surrounded by figures from the Ramayana in a dramatic Himalayan landscape, representing the pivotal moment in which Hanuman retrieves the life-saving herb to revive Lakshmana. The scene is structured around Hanuman’s monumental, centrally placed figure, whose dynamic posture and expressive modelling anchor the composition. Rendered in a restrained palette of greens and ochres, the work emphasises narrative legibility and emotional immediacy, qualities that defined early 20th-century Indian mythological prints produced for domestic devotional contexts. The treatment of form, costume, and physiognomy reflects the enduring influence of Raja Ravi Varma’s pioneering synthesis of European academic realism with Indian epic subject matter, an approach that profoundly shaped the visual language of chromolithographic presses operating in western India during this period.