Picture Details
Ragamala painting: Malasri Ragini
Partner:
British LibraryImage reference:
BL.Add.Or.1236Origin:
Rajasthan, IndiaArtist / Date:
Unknown, c.1650Description:
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A raga is an Indian musical mode which evokes an emotion and creates a mood. Ragas have been classified into a variety of tonal frameworks and conceptualised in literature on music from medieval times. There are six `male' ragas, each with about six `wives' or raginis and sometimes also `sons' or ragaputras and `daughters-in-law'. The convention is that each raga delineates particular sentiments or rasas and that they are performed during certain seasons or times of day. Ragamala paintings brought together literary, artistic and musical traditions. Here Malasri ragini (a wife of raga Bhairava) is depicted as a beautiful woman preparing a bed in a garden, on which she scatters lotus petals which she has gathered in leaf baskets. The mood is of beauty created in anticipation of a perfect lovers' tryst. The green landscape is dotted with lily, poppy and carnation, and the colourful bedspread echoes the vivid flowers.
