Vishnu as Ramachandra (Rama); sculpture, silver, South India, 18th century.

A figure of Rama in silver posed in a slightly flexed pose (abhanga) holding in his left hand the remnants of an otherwise now missing bow. A quiver hangs behind his left shoulder. A triangular shrivatsa mark is incised on the right (proper) side of his chest. He wears a short shoti that reaches just above his knees hanging in tight folds with a waist sash with ends hangin down to his feet on either side. He wears a conical headdress (karandamukuta) and stands on a splyed lotus pedestal on a plain square base. An inscription runs around the upper part of the pedestal. The figure is relatively large compared to other silver figures in the museum collection.

Given to the India Museum, London, by Colonel Colin Mackenzie (1754- 1821), who may have acquired it some time around 1800-10. It was transferred from the India Museum to the South Kensington Museum (now V&A) in 1879. The India Museum Slip Book notes the difficulty of identifying the figure with complete precision as the names of Rama's brothers, Satrughna, Bharata and Lakshmana, have all been inscribed and later crossed out, leaving Ramachandra as the likeliest identity.

The India Museum Slip Book entry, number 354, states that it was presented by 'Col. MacKenzie'. Colonel Colin Mackenzie was a British antiquarian who completed a major survey of the Mysore kingdom in southern India and became the first Surveyor General of India in 1815. Born in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland, Mackenzie travelled to India in 1783 as an Infantry cadet in the 78th Seaforth Highlanders but in 1786 transferred to become an Engineer in the Madras Army. He spent the remainder of his life in Asia, much of it in southern India, where he carried out a survey of the Nizam of Hyderabad's Dominions (1792-8) and the Mysore Survey (1799-1810), although he also worked in other parts of India and in Java (1811-13). Further information can be found in Howes, J. Illustrating India: the Early Colonial Investigations of Colin Mackenzie (1784-1821), Oxford University Press, 2010 and other publications. Mackenzie's serious research into antiquities began after his return from an expedition to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 1796 and was made possible by his association with Kavelli (or Cavelly) Venkata Boria, a Brahmin whose talents as a translator of Indian languages were of great importance to Mackenzie and some of whose family members continued to work with Mackenzie after Boria's death in 1803.

The Slip Book entry for this object records that the following information: 'Name of article: English: Idol (Silver)...Information to be inscribed on label. Satrunghna, the brother of Ramachandra'. However, the names Bharata and Lakshmana (other brothers of Rama) were written and crossed out before that. The iconography of these figures is difficult to distinguish. The 1880 Inventory of objects transferred from the India Museum to the South Kensington Museum identifies the figure as 'Vishnu as Rama Chandra'.

561(IS)