Traditional style Balinese paintings typically depict narrative stories and scenes drawn from mythological sources such as Panji stories, known as colloquially as Malat, as well as from the adapted Indian epics the Ramayana and Mahabarata. This particular painting portrays an unidentified scene from the Ramayana. It is probably a less common example of a painting from the village of Kerambitan in Western Bali.The Balinese customarily produced paintings to decorate temples and palaces, as well as for display in ritual practices. However, after the collapse of the traditional Balinese kingdoms and imposition of Dutch rule in the early 20th century such paintings also came to be produced as commercial works of art for sale.
