This illustration of the Ramayana depicts episodes from the Kishkindha Kanda. The episodes recount the story of Rama and Sugriva. The top section shows Hanuman leading Rama and Lakshmana to Sugriva, the exiled monkey king. Knowing that Sugriva was wrongly accused by Vali, the king of Kishkindha, Rama offers to help him. In the second section, Rama assures Sugriva by demonstrating his prowess by piercing seven trees with a single arrow. The last section shows Rama and Sugriva forming an alliance to recover Sugriva's kingdom and in turn Sugriva promises Rama to help Rama find Sita. 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 very rare that they paint scenes from the Ramayana on individual pieces of cloth retaining the mural tradition of painting the narrative of the story in registers.
