In this painting, the monkey king Sugriva commands his army to begin their search for Sita in four directions. The top section shows Rama giving Hanuman his signet ring to find Sita and blesses him in his mission.The artist has divided the second and last sections into four parts to signify the four directions in which the monkey armies were despatched. The use of bright red background is characteristic of the Cherial paintings where mostly primary colours are employed. Each band is distinctively drawn with a floral band separating the sections very intelligently.Andhra painters are traditionally trained as painters of murals, or scrolls and some of them Kalamkari, a method of painting natural dyes onto cotton or silk fabric with a bamboo pen or 'kalam'. It is rare they paint scenes from the Ramayana on individual pieces of cloth retaining the mural tradition of painting the narrative of the story in registers.
