Important Notice

Chamba, Pahari School
Circa 1760
Natural pigments on paper heightened with gold
8.75 x 6.25 in (22.5 x 16 cm)

NON-EXPORTABLE REGISTERED ANTIQUITY

PROVENANCE
Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art, Hyderabad



Malashri Ragini is the third wife of Raga Bhairava one of the six main Ragas in the Ragamala series. Ragamala paintings were one of the most popular secular subjects depicted in the pictorial tradition of Indian art. Ragamala is a complex tripartite art form which developed from Raga or musical notes to poetry and their subsequent visualization through court paintings.
In the musical tradition, Malashri Ragini is sung from dawn to dusk and here, it is depicted as a solitary Nayika (heroine) waiting for her beloved by holding a lotus in her hand. In other versions, she is usually depicted with her friends playing a game, by plucking lotus petals and guessing whether her lover would come or not. Here she is shown standing in a balcony, outside a palatial building with a column, a slanting roof with lotus patterns, a door covered with red blinds and a rolled curtain. A marble balustrade is seen along the edge of the balcony while the background is depicted in bright red which does not indicate any particular time of the evening from dusk to dawn, akin to the time when it is sung/played. The Nayika is shown wearing a pink jama and a mauve translucent dupatta with gold and pearl adorned jewellery. She wears red coloured dangling earrings and her index finger of her right-hand rests on her chin in contemplation. Brown tiles in the balcony perhaps indicate wooden flooring while a dark blue border balances the bright red background and grey wall of the building.

Chamba, Pahari School
Circa 1760
Natural pigments on paper heightened with gold
8.75 x 6.25 in (22.5 x 16 cm)

NON-EXPORTABLE REGISTERED ANTIQUITY

PROVENANCE
Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art, Hyderabad



Malashri Ragini is the third wife of Raga Bhairava one of the six main Ragas in the Ragamala series. Ragamala paintings were one of the most popular secular subjects depicted in the pictorial tradition of Indian art. Ragamala is a complex tripartite art form which developed from Raga or musical notes to poetry and their subsequent visualization through court paintings.
In the musical tradition, Malashri Ragini is sung from dawn to dusk and here, it is depicted as a solitary Nayika (heroine) waiting for her beloved by holding a lotus in her hand. In other versions, she is usually depicted with her friends playing a game, by plucking lotus petals and guessing whether her lover would come or not. Here she is shown standing in a balcony, outside a palatial building with a column, a slanting roof with lotus patterns, a door covered with red blinds and a rolled curtain. A marble balustrade is seen along the edge of the balcony while the background is depicted in bright red which does not indicate any particular time of the evening from dusk to dawn, akin to the time when it is sung/played. The Nayika is shown wearing a pink jama and a mauve translucent dupatta with gold and pearl adorned jewellery. She wears red coloured dangling earrings and her index finger of her right-hand rests on her chin in contemplation. Brown tiles in the balcony perhaps indicate wooden flooring while a dark blue border balances the bright red background and grey wall of the building.