Wat Bo : North wall, upper register
This
register must be read from left to right.
Fig. 1. N – We have seen
that Mount Krailat had been tilt by the rage of Rammasun and Orachun (see
Fig.16. W.). On the mural, Ravana is painted in a red cave lifting the palace
and the mountain back to its original position (Fig. lower left). At the
center, Valin is shown kneeling in front of Shiva asking for his reward in
previous attempted to straighten the mountain together with is brother Sugriva.
(see 17W.), Ravana was first to claim reword to his request to be given Uma, Shiva’s consort. Quickly Ravana flew
away carrying Uma on his head (top right)
Fig.2.N - Ravana taking Uma was considered a great
affront to Shiva. Vishnu was asked to go and remedy the situation. He
incarnated as a common gardener and when Ravana was flying over it, Vishnu
showed himself planting trees upside-down, roots in the air and foliage into
the earth. Ravana commented that finding Vishnu reduced a gardener was very
silly. Vishnu replied, that his foolishness was nothing when compared to his
stupidity of having taken Uma who will burn his manhood and prevent him from
having more sons. Ravana understood and returned Uma to Shiva taking instead
Mandodari.
Fig.3.N. - This panoramic
reproduce what seen in Fig.2. At the
center, as Ravana was flying to Lanka with his beautiful new consort, he passed
over the palace of Valin (not shown in the picture.). Valin was very offended.
Captivated by the beauty of the girl jumped into the sky, quickly reaching
Ravana. After a fight, he thrashed Ravana with his weapon, weakening him and
forcing him to release Mandodari, whom he stole away (Fig. 04 N, top right
corner).
Fig.4.N - Following this,
the mural depicts Ravana in his palace at Lanka, desolate for the loss of
Mondadori and wanting to have her back. His brothers, Vibhisana and
Kumbhakarna, were summoned and suggested hem to go to see his teacher, Khobut.
He advised him to seek the help of Angkhot, the former teacher of Valin, sure
that Angkhot could convince him to act righteously. Ravana went to Angkhot, who
took pity on him and, while Ravana waited, Angkhot flew to Kiskindha to obtain
Mandodari from Valin.
Fig.5.N - However, there
was a complication: Mandodari was six months pregnant with a son from Valin,
and Valin was afraid if Mandodari brought the child to Lanka, Ravana would kill
him. Therefore, Angkhot magically transferred the fetus into a goat, restored her virginity, and brought her to Ravana (Fig. 06 N, top right), who
transported her to Lanka where he is shown happily embracing her in his palace
(Fig. 07 N).
Fig.6.N –The son of
Mandodari and Valin was born at Valin’s court. He received the name of Angada.
When he grew to be a boy, Valin organized a great ceremony for him. The small
cortege left Valin’s royal palace, accompanied by a few monkeys, under a royal
parasol. The young monkey was carried by his father to an ascetic sitting under
a canopy ornate with several five-tiered parasols.
Fig.7 - At the bottom
right corner of the ceremonial pavilion a large crab is visible, the animal
shape taken by Ravana with the intent to kill Angada; however, Ravana was
captured by Valin and brought in chains in front of the palace and beaten by
monkey soldiers (Fig. 7 right, in blue background).
Fig.8.N.-
Ravana, defeated by many events, went to visit his teacher Khobut with the
intention to become immortal. He is first seen kneeling on the ground in front
of the hermit who is sitting on the mountain (Fig. 8.N, top left, then
kneeling), then kneeling in front ok Kobut in his mall hermitage.
In
the Ramakien, it is
narrated that at the close of the ceremony, Ravana’s heart floated into a
container kept by the hermit, because if the heart was kept near Ravana, it
will go back into his body.
Soon
after, Ravana can be seen flying off through the air and getting involved in a
fight to steal the magic chariot Busabok from his brother Kubera
NOTE - This very damaged
panel, almost unreadable may illustrate that when Shiva was awakened from his
meditation by Ravana, enraged he scolded him and, taking a tusk from his
elephant, hurled it into the breast of Ravana proclaiming that the tusk would
stay in his body until the day he dies.
Fig.9.N. - Ravana, hurt by Shiva, is seen in his magic chariot returning to Lanka in great pain attempting to extract the tusk from his chest.
Fig.10.N. - He asked the
heavenly master of the arts, Visvakarman, to try to extract the tusk, seen flying down from the upper left holding a
regular wood saw, but nothing could be done, except cutting the protruding ends
and hiding the wound under his clothes.
The
last panel of the upper register displays the beginning of the story that
continues in the middle register below. Ravana flew to the paradise of Indra,
Tavatimsa, spying on Indra’s wives, planning to seduce them..
*Here ends the upper register of the north
wall.
5.North wall, middle register
This
register must be read from right to left.
Fig.11.N. - After a week
of enjoying himself in Indra’s heaven, Ravana took off for the world of the
animals. He first plunged into the ocean to make love with a large female fish
before emerging on the shore satisfied, the result of which will be the mermaid,
Suphanamatcha (Fig. 19 N).
Fig.12,N. - Ravana in the world of the elephants,
flirting the elephant
Fig.13.N. - The two sons
born with elephantine faces are visible in the royal pavilion together with
Ravana and Mandodari.
Fig.14 .N.- The young Indrajit ,after
learning From Khobut to learn the virtues and sciences , part of which involved
performing a ritual sitting in meditation under a tree practicing asceticism
for seven years in order to obtain magic weapons from the gods
Fig.15.N. - Three gods are painted in the
next panel, Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu, visiting Indrajit to bless his weapons.
Fig.16.N.- Then, in Lanka, Indrajit, now
that he had magic weapons, bid farewell to his father before going to raise an
army and attack Indra. Indrajit, mounted on his elephant marched forth escorted
by an army of yaks. Indrajit is shown
twice (on dark-blue and light blue background)) holding his bow armed with the
magic arrows he received from the gods, one that could transform in nagas and another that could repel the
flaming magic discus of Indra The old Indra was terrified, the angels dispersed
and Indra escaped on his chariot pulled by white horses.
Indrajit had won and
defeated the god Indra, meriting the name or Indrajit, the conqueror of Indra.
Fig.16b. Indrajit (left) charging Indra on his chariot, Defeating him completely and gaining the name Indrajit (Conqueror of Indra)
Fig.18.N. – panoramic
view of the central part of the middle register
The end the middle register of the north
wall.
6-North wall, lower register
This
register must to be read from left to right
Fig.19.N. - the narrative
sequence of Ramakien or any other published telling. The inscription
narrates that the king of the naga
brought his young daughter to king Akineak as an offering.. Next, again not in
the written narratives, Akineak is presented to Maiyarap.
Fig.20.N. - Maiyarap is shown in the process of
grabbing a tiny crystal globe with the fingers of his left hand (white) and
flying away probably carrying the crystal globe to be saved on Mount Trikut.
Fig.21.N. - The king of
Kaiyaket had decided to send his daughter Kaikey on a modest chariot (Fig. 36
N), accompanied by two courtesans and escorted by soldiers with spears, to
Atchaban for marriage with his son, Dasaratha. On the mural, the presentation
of the princess is very simple and reserved.
Fig.22.
N. - After his
retirement, Atchaban went for a stroll in the forest where he met a hunter
carrying a wounded dear suspended by his legs on a stick. The mural shows
Atchaban coming forward with a servant holding a parasol, to negotiate with the
hunter (shown to the right) who is holding the deer. At the center there is a
Chinese man carefully supervising the weighting of the animal in order to claim
the same amount of flesh from the king. The lower part of the scene has been
lost.
Fig.23.N. - The panel
that follows displays Indra’s messenger, Matuli, first bringing a chariot in
offering from Indra
Fig,25.N. - The panoramic
picture shows several scenes related to the story when King Romaphat, after
making a sacrificial ceremony in a small pavilion of his palace (left on blue
background), decided to send is daughter Arunwadi to visit the Great Hermit
(central part of figure), Kalaikot, a powerful hermit with the body of a man
but the head of a deer who was causing great heat and drought in the
surrounding areas. She left on a chariot escorted by Western dressed soldiers,
led by a forest hunter, and accompanied by courtesans (top left).
Then, on the next panel (in a hermitage on
blue background, she met Kalaikot, who abandoned his asceticism and fell in
love with her, ending the drought He decided to join the girl. Arunwadi returns to her father on a chariot
(degraded by time) with one blue parasol, tenderly embracing the great ascetic,
escorted by Western dressed soldiers (Fig. 43 N, lower right part).42
Fig.26.N. – In Ayutthaya, where Dasaratha, desirous of having sons,[1]
went to meet four ascetics (Fig. 45 N); then Dasaratha, together with the four
ascetics went flying through the air,escorted on land by soldiers in Western
hats. He, went to see King Romaphat who reluctantly introduced him to Kalaikot
in order to help him become a father. Dasaratha and the four ascetics are sent
to see Kalaikot. The ascetics thought that the matter had to be discussed with
Shiva, so the five ascetics, headed
by Kalaikot flew up to heaven
(top part of panel).
[1] In Ramakien, King Thotsarot has
three wives, but was childless.
Fig.27.N. - Vishnu had to
descend to earth as the son of Dasaratha, Rama, in order to terminate all the
problems caused by Ravana and the other demons. Vishnu is depicted on the
shoulders of Krut (Garuda) on a blue background (top left). In order to
invite Vishnu to incarnate, a formal ceremony was performed on a square
stepped-pavilion flanked by five-tiered parasols; on the highest step was
Kalaikot, at the center of the four ascetics. After three days, a tray emerged
from a sacrificial fire with four lumps of cooked rice of extraordinary flavor
and aroma; on the panel, the rice-tray is shown to the left of Dasaratha and
his queens, both seated on the second step of the pavilion (Fig. 48 N, center).
The
fragrance of the rice reached the kingdom of Lanka where Mandodari beseeched
Ravana to get some of the rice for her. Ravana sent a demoness in the form of a
black crow, Ka Kanasun, to the kingdom of Ayuthaya to steal the rice . The crow
stole only half a lump, which is visible on the same panel, where a black crow,
not easily distinguishable on the dark background, is depicted flying down to
the tray and stealing a piece of the rice and then taking off, to the right.
Fig.28.N.- Dasaratha and
his consorts are travelling on four elephants, the king on a white one,
escorted by bearded soldiers in colonial uniforms and carrying rifles. The king
and his three wives sit in a royal pavilion to be admired by the people of
their country (lower right), including men wearing Western hats. Soon Dasaratha
gets involved in a fight with a demon, Herantathut, who has descended from the
sky (upper and lower center-left).
Here
ends the narrative of the North wall.
It
continues on the top register of the eastern wall.
END
OF PART 1
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