UNPACKING THE “SHANGRI” RAMAYANA
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06 Aug
07 Aug
2026
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Southasian Painting
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Sonya Rhie Mace
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Image: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Julia and Larry Pollock Focus Gallery. Photography Courtesy of The Cleveland Museum of Art.
In 2026 the Cleveland Museum of Art published a catalogue of Pahari paintings from the Catherine Glynn Benkaim and Ralph Benkaim Collection. To accompany the catalogue, the museum developed an exhibition focused on recontextualizing the Benkaim Collection paintings from the “Shangri” Ramayana. Through the process of reuniting the pictorial series, the curator found that the “Shangri” Ramayana reveals aspects about Pahari painting patronage and artistic practice that have not been emphasized in previous studies. In two fully illustrated lectures, she presents the latest findings and conclusions pertaining to what appears to be the most extensive pictorial Ramayana known to date.
6th August: The 'Shangri' Ramayana: Histories and Historiographies
7th August: Individual or Collective? Locating Meaning and Value in a Pictorial Series
Online Public Seminar Series on ZOOM
Lectures in this series will be recorded and made available for 24 hours via a secure Zoom link on a scheduled date, subject to scholar consent due to the nature of ongoing research.
P.S: The Zoom link to join the lecture will be shared 24 hours prior to the talk.
Duration -
August 6, 7, 2026
Timing: 6:30 - 8:45 PM IST
Fees
Rs. 2,000 (For student discounts registrations kindly email info@jp-india.org)
Registrations will open on 20-Jun-2026
Sonya Rhie Mace
Sonya Rhie Mace, Ph.D. has been the George P. Bickford Curator of Indian and Southeast Asian Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art since 2012, following eight years as Curator of Asian Art at the San Diego Museum of Art. Her special exhibitions include Rhythms of India: The Art of Nandalal Bose (2007), Tantra in Buddhist Art (2013), Mughal India: Art and Stories (2016), Revealing Krishna: Journey to Cambodia’s Sacred Mountain (2021), and Epic of the Northwest Himalayas: Pahari Paintings from the “‘Shangri’ Ramayana” (2026). She continues to teach and publish her ongoing research on aspects of early Indian sculpture.