At the juncture of the Bhoomi Puja of the new Rama temple at Ayodhya, the internet is awash with images of Rama, Sita, and Hanuman, some more famous than others. Even Times Square in NYC beamed one of most famous images of Rama. Sadly many of the "new-age" art on Twitter & Instagram feature veiny, muscle-laden representations of Rama that more resemble WWE wrestlers than a personality of Godhead. For instance, 1, 2, 3.
Even rishis and sages have not been left alone by this muscle fetish. I would love to know how mendicants that lived on offerings and focused all their attention on spiritual enlightenment managed to rock such hard bods! I call it the "Avenger-ization" of Hindu mythology.
In contrast to these "physique dominant" modern representations, the classical representations of Rama focus on His intangibles, such as Karunya (compassion) and Chakravartin (universal ruler). In classical works, overtly muscled representations are usually reserved for demons and rakshashas. A pity how far the trends have reversed.
By liberally lathering muscles onto the Gods, there is an attempt to project strength and occasionally, jingoistic pride. In many of these artworks, Rama's warriorship is commandeered to score political points; lost in this unfortunate exercise are so many of His other strengths and traits.
I have also pondered at length about the artistic license that Rama lends. The imagery of Rama is a lot less flexible than that of Krishna. Krishna is an intensely personal God, perhaps rivaled only by Ganesha. He is like wet putty, ready to be crafted and moulded in any form to the artist's desires. From His childhood antics to his grownup machinations, Krishna's actions have been immortalized in numerous works that provide a rich trove of representational raw material. He dissembles, steals, hides, runs from battle, excoriates, and loves fine things... He is deeply human. It is in His perfect imperfections that the artist finds room for grand or silly experimentations with representational imagery.
Rama, on the other hand, is synonymous with perfection. The perfect son, the perfect brother, the perfect husband, and the perfect ruler. Stoic, assured, measured, able, and duty-bound to a fault. His perfection brooks no faults. It countenances no half-measures. Any representation that fails to capture all of his perfections, fails to capture any of them. These Hulk-like pictures of Rama are as close to capturing His essence as a G I Joe toy can capture the essence of a Marine.
My favorite representations of Rama are the utsavar moorthis in some temples, notably Vaduvur Ramar. The divine is inherently ageless. Something transient like musculature cannot grasp the agelessness of the divine. Even the smallest detail in the representation of divinity has philosophical significance: each curve has a story, and each ornament a moral. In an attempt to appeal to today's western taste sensibilities – chiseled jawlines, tank-like upper bodies, 8-pack abs – we cannot discard traditional representational choices.
Art is a form of expression and the artist has the right to interpret any subject as the artist sees fit. However I believe that art also comes with a responsibility to the subject. It is through the conflation of the two – sensibility and responsibility – that we create art that transcends time and place.
I share below a few of my attempts at capturing Rama on paper, drawn over several months.
