Ahalya Shaap Vimochan - 02

Rare oleograph of 'Ahalya Shaap Vimochan' or Rama Releasing Ahalya From Her Curse by Raja Ravi Varma from the early 1900s. Ahalya is the wife of the sage Gautama Maharishi. This print depicts the story of her seduction by Indra (King of Gods), as he had tricked her by taking her husband’s form. Her husband then cursed her for her infidelity and turned her to a stone. Lord Rama, one of Vishnu's avatars, visits Gautama's ashram before he reaches Mithila for the swayamvar of Sita, accompanied by sage Vishwamitra and Lakshmana. He brushes his feet against the stone that Ahalya had been turned into, and she is released from the curse and turned back to her human form.