The Scent of Power
This painting is an uncommon example in which the subject is also its patron. The king, Raja Mandhata, is depicted in an aristocratic and sophisticated fashion. He is elegantly dressed and perfumed with sweet-smelling sandalwood paste, indicated by the curved lines above his eyebrows and across his neck. In contrast, the vibrant yellow color he sits in front of was a famously pungent, ammonia-scented pigment, composed of dried cow urine. This intense yellow orange color was achieved by feeding cows a diet of only mango leaves. The practice is no longer in favor, but the color (now artificially synthesized) is still commonly referred to as “Indian Yellow.”
Drawing Her Attention
In a courtly setting, a woman sits and paints an image of her beloved. The image has special emotional meaning. It embodies longing for an absent lover.
This painting within a painting provides a glimpse of artist practice. She sits and applies color to a contour line drawing on stiff paper. She is surrounded by seashells used as containers for pigments, a jar holding brushes, and two bowls of water for cleaning and mixing with pigments.
Although female artists were not the norm, the subject of this painting was not implausible. However, most artists were highly trained men who worked as a part of a court workshop, producing commissions for royal patrons.
Quenching the Fires of Love
Monsoon rains in Indian painting invoke a sense of intimacy. In this scene, two lovers gaze at each other while storm clouds fill the sky above. The heavy rains of the monsoon are a time when plants flourish, animals mate, and lovers shelter indoors together. For this reason, the monsoon season is highly anticipated. The hero in this painting tips back a jug of water for a drink. The parallel between the water pouring into his mouth and the water falling from the clouds above further emphasizes the intimate setting and the closeness of the two.
Five More Minutes
A common theme in ragamala paintings is the mood of romance. In this folio, two lovers embrace in the hours before daybreak, when suddenly a peacock, disrupts them with cries from above. Though the two have spent the entire night in each other’s arms, they are still not ready for the dawn to end their time together. The hero draws his bow and arrow, ready to strike down the peacock for a few more peaceful moments with his lover. A closer look at the bow reveals that it is made entirely of flowers, a reference to Kamadeva, the Hindu god of love and desire.
Love is in Bloom
The musical composition Vilaval Ragini was ideally performed in the morning. The painter recalled this time of day by suggesting the rising sun. The bands of white red and yellow at the top of the painting, which are traditionally used to create a space for inscriptions, here seem to illuminate golden finials on top of the buildings, while black night lingers below the horizon. The heroine (nayika) prepares to meet the hero (nayaka). Their blooming love is expressed by the elaborate garden reaching to the sky.
Date Night
With the help of her friend and confidante (sakhi), the heroine (nayika) completes her toilette ritual in preparation for her date with the hero (nayaka). The artist has placed the heroine in an extravagant palace with a tiled floor, ornate columns, and a well-manicured garden. Eager for their meeting, her beloved watches from the bushes.
He Loves Me! He Loves Me Not!
The personified Malasri Ragini misses her lover and aches for his return. The heat of her passion is fanned away by her confidante (sakhi). Malasri is outside the palace in a walled garden at night. The palace interior is the red of passion, but has only containers of past encounters indicating the recent departure of her lover.
Here, Malasri is pulling petals from a lotus. She plucks the petals in a deliberate manner as if to chant, “He loves me, he loves me not.”
Here, Malasri is pulling petals from a lotus. She plucks the petals in a deliberate manner as if to chant, “He loves me, he loves me not.”
The Heat of the Night
A young woman is shown desperately missing her lover; her sorrow and longing is demonstrated by the gesture of her arms circled around her head. This posture also emphasizes and frames her beauty. Her eyes are wide open and downcast showing her restless impatience. Her passion’s heat is so high that she is fanned by her confidante for relief.
The Divine and the Feline
This painting of Bangali Ragini is unusual as it shows a cheetah sitting in a side shrine of a temple dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu. In the seventeenth-century when this painting was made, rulers across India kept cheetahs as pets and used them during their hunts. As a result, these felines became important symbols of royalty. The red collar worn by the cheetah in the Bangali Ragini most likely indicates it is the pet of the young prince seated outside the shrine. The inclusion of this feline friend continues to mystify scholars as cheetahs were not typically included in paintings of temples or ragamala series. The painting was made in Marwar, which is located in the northwestern Indian state of Rajasthan.
Ornament of Shiva
The Shankarabharana Ragaputra showcases an important religious ritual (puja) to the Hindu god Shiva. Two priests in the inner sanctum of a Hindu temple worship a Shiva Lingam. The lingam is an aniconic form of Shiva that is customarily present in Shiva temples to receive offerings such as milk, water, flower petals, fruit, fresh leaves, and rice. In this painting, the priest on the right is shown pouring water on the lingam from a silver ewer while the priest on the left presents a plate with offerings. The Sanskrit name of the painting and the musical mode is Shankarabharana which means the “Ornament of Shiva,” indicating the religious mood of the raga.
Dangerous Woman
The Asavari Ragini musical mode is meant to convey dignity, desire, and longing. In painting, the ragini is embodied as a beautiful woman – often an ascetic – alone in the woods. This depiction suggests the woman’s magical powers by depicting her ability to charm snakes. Dozens of snakes encircle the woman, fish swim and birds flock to her, and two scorpions fight on a nearby rock, close to her abandoned spear. She controls the snake with her metaphysical power. For the intended male viewers of 16th-century India, the woman’s combination of beauty and magical prowess make her simultaneously alluring and intimidating, enticing but dangerous.
Beauty & The Beasts
Asavari Ragini iconography varies by location and time period, displaying variances in the way the ragini is depicted. In this painting from the Mewar court created a century after the previous Bundi example, the female figure is not an ascetic, but a courtly woman. She is shown to be much more approachable for the viewer than the fearsome woman in the Bundi example. Although the woman also charms a snake, she is surrounded by peacocks and elephants that cheerfully play in the trees and water around her; they are tamed by her presence. An auspicious white elephant and white peacock – both omens of good fortune and abundance –signify her rare beauty and the potency of her mesmerizing power.
Fashionably Late
She embodies beauty and grace. The woman in gold awaits the beginning of her romantic encounter. Hands and feet dyed red, white garlands in each hand, she is ready to greet her lover. The radiant halo framing her head links her to the divine. Her halo and golden color draw visual associations to the goddess Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth, fortune and abundance. Just as deities are often depicted on lotus flowers, the young woman walks through a naturalistic landscape above a lotus pond in bloom.
Lost Love
Not all aspects of a romance are pleasant. Kakubha, the wife of Megha Raga, is not happy as she is potentially left stranded by her lover. As she waits for him, she keeps garlands in her hands still hoping to greet him. Concerned that she has been abandoned by her love, Kakubha roams a forest in the company of two peacocks who also search for mates. These peacocks don’t symbolize contentment or love, they echo her cries of despair.
Work in Progress
This unfinished painting of Gunakali Ragini gives us insight into how ragamala artists created their works. The initial sketch of a ragamala painting is a detailed outline made on paper by the master who leaves room for a border around the drawing. After the master artist’s outline is completed, the sketch would be handed off to junior artists s in the workshop. They would either block in colors with brushes, make pin pricks into gold areas with a blunt needle or rub a smooth stone over the back of the painting to make the pigments glossy. Then the painting was returned to the master artist for its final details and finishing touches. Notice that the master artist left a patch of color in each space so the junior painters would know what colors to apply.
Finishing Touches
With music as their inspiration, artists used ragas to visually depict moods (bhavas). Highly ornate details in ragamala paintings usually indicate figures or objects of exceptional importance or draw attention to the wealth of the patron. The elaborate borders around Vilaval Ragini compliment the highly decorative dresses of the two seated women in the center, one of whom is trying on an earring while her dutiful friend holds up a mirror. There is no doubt who should be the focus of the viewer’s attention.
What’s in a Name?
Like raga music, iconography in ragamala painting exhibits regional variations. Typically, Kamod Ragini presents an ascetic with prayer beads. In this example however, which depicts a woman feeding peacocks, the imagery is more typical of Gauri Ragini. Nevertheless, the inscription on the painting’s top border identifies it as Kamod Ragini, suggesting a regional variation unique to Sirohi. This particular work is from a ragamala set by the Sirohi Master, the same artist who painted the Sarang Raga.
The Greeting
Painted representations of the Sarang Raga usually feature the Hindu god Vishnu with his conch or Krishna with his flute. This painting, however, shows two ascetics within a palace garden, a representation of the Sarang Raga unique to the Sirohi tradition.
Architectural depth is shown by the overlapping of visual elements. The gazelle are the closest objects to the viewer as they overlap all other elements. The ascetic on the rock is on the same plane as the younger man and is therefore also in front of the building. Interestingly, the pavilion’s roof and senior man’s cushion overlap the frame creating a sense of the unreal.
