Book of Gold: The Kanchana Chitra Ramayana of Banaras is a landmark publication that reveals the extraordinary richness and vitality of North Indian manuscript painting in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Edited and co-authored by the late Kavita Singh and Parul Singh, the book accompanies MAP’s exhibition that brings together, for the first time, folios from the magnificent Kanchana Chitra Ramayana—a monumental illustrated manuscript created for the royal court of Banaras between 1796 and 1814.
Known locally as the “Golden Illustrated Ramayana,” the manuscript stands out for both its ambition and its lavish use of gold. Gold animates every aspect of the folios—from delicate punctuation and margins to glowing skies, palace walls, textiles, and expansive cityscapes—underscoring the scale of patronage behind the project. Over an eighteen-year period, artists from multiple painting traditions came together to illustrate Tulsidas’ Ramcharitmanas, producing approximately 548 paintings, with each text page paired with a facing image.
The publication presents over 75 folios from this previously unknown and long-dispersed manuscript, alongside six scholarly essays by leading thinkers in art history, architecture, literature, and performance studies. Essays by Kavita Singh, Philip Lutgendorf, Parul Singh, Heeryoon Shin, Anjan Chakraverty, and Richard Schechner explore the historical, religious, artistic, and performative contexts of the Chitra Ramayana, situating it within broader traditions of Rama-katha, royal patronage, and cultural life in Banaras. A concluding note on style, richly illustrated with high-quality reproductions, offers fresh insight into the enduring dynamism of the Indian manuscript painting tradition well into the nineteenth century.
Both a work of rigorous scholarship and visual splendour, Book of Gold is an essential volume for readers interested in Indian art history, manuscript traditions, and the living legacy of the Ramcharitmanas.