‘DESAKH RAGINI’: AN ILLUSTRATION FROM A RAGAMALA SERIES

Project Details

‘DESAKH RAGINI’: AN ILLUSTRATION FROM A RAGAMALA SERIES

India, Rajasthan, Kota.

Circa 1760

Dimensions: 40 x 26 cm.

Gouache on paper, yellow panel at top with nagari text, red border. Four male acrobats attired in shorts performing around a pole with a female acrobat wearing blue pantaloons balanced at the top of the pole in a landscape, plantain trees in the background.

This energetic ragamala illustration stands out with its strong , vibrant colours of a Rajput eighteenth century atelier. Kota on the Chambal River is situated in Rajasthan near to Bundi, a sister state with close, similar styles of painting.

A ragamala is a collection of melody modes, regarded as an essential basis of traditional Indian music. In Northern India, a raga is a selection of twenty-two notes in certain meaningful progressions. Ragas and raginis relate to specific moods and seasons at different times of the day and in the Rajasthani tradition, a full ragamala series consists of thirty-six illustrations. Desakh ragini displays well acrobats performing around a central pole, a popular act at village fairs around India. The acrobats, defying gravity, causing gasps from their audiences. The colourful intensity is captured so well by the artist of this Kota painting.

For further discussion see:

K. Ebeling, Ragamala Painting, Basel, 1973, colour plates C19 and C20.

E. and R.I. Waldschmidt, Miniatures of Musical Inspiration Part II. Ragamala – Pictures from Northern India and the Deccan, Berlin, 1975.

C. Glynn, R. Skelton and A. Dallapiccola, Ragamala Paintings from the Claudio Moscatelli Collection, London, 2011, no. 10.

Provenance

Private UK Collection.

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank Margaret Erskine for writing this article on the present miniature painting.

Categories: Calligraphy & Miniatures

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‘DESAKH RAGINI’: AN ILLUSTRATION FROM A RAGAMALA SERIES

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