English: Lakshman taking leave of Sita

Mughal India, 1594 AD Folio 431 verso (p. 862), gouache heightened with gold and silver on paper, the foreground with a boat with a horse-headed prow, with Lakshman seated beneath a canopy with a fish leaping out of the water and a crocodile's head appearing below, the figures of Sita and Valmiki in the background, two lines of flowing black nasta'liq within panels, the recto with 18 lines of text, slight flaking Miniature 12¾ x 8¼in. (32.4 x 21.4cm.); text area 9½ x 5½in. (23.7 x 13.8cm.)

Lakshman leaves Sita on the further bank of the Ganges while he returns to the other side. She is left with Valmiki who takes her to the hermitage of some female ascetics. The text on the front says that Lakshman is happy on hearing the good news. The text on the recto contains Sita's justification of herself.

This is an unusual miniature. The subject does not appear in either the Ramayana produced for Akbar himself, nor that made for 'Abd al-Rahim. Having been repudiated by Rama, Sita is left in a hermitage where she bears her twin sons (seen in lot 61). After fifteen years of exile, Rama finally accepts her purity. Sita is widely regarded as a paragon of wifely virtue. Akbar's mother, Hamida Banu Begum, may well have felt a strong identification with her, having followed her husband, Humayun into temporary exile in Iran and thereby endured great personal hardship. Shortly after their marriage, Humayun lost his base in India and was forced to flee across the desert. He, his wife and followers were given refuge in Amarkot, where Hamida Banu gave birth to her first child. Had it not been for the generosity of these Rajputs, it is unlikely that any of them would have survived. This trek of a royal lady following her exiled husband beyond civilisation has a close parallel with the story of Sita and Rama and must have appealed both to Hamida Banu and to Akbar himself.