ARTS OF INDIA

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AN ILLUSTRATION TO A RAGAMALA SERIES: VASANT RAGA
HYDERABAD, DECCAN, CENTRAL INDIA,
THIRD QUARTER 18TH CENTURY
Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, a crowned blue-skinned
deity is celebrating holi festival with his female courtiers, musicians are
playing, the courtiers are pumping coloured water from elaborate gilt lotas, in
gold foliated margins, the reverse with calligraphic panel in elegant nasta’liq
script within gilt foral margins, with wide burnt orange borders with elegant
foral lattice, with identifcation inscription in black nasta’liq script above
Painting 9 x 6¡in. (22.8 x 16cm.); Folio 16º x 10¡in. (41.3 x 26.4cm.)
£4,000-6,000 $5,700-8,500
€5,000-7,500
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AN ILLUSTRATION TO A RAGAMALA SERIES: BHAIRAV RAGA
HYDERABAD, DECCAN, CENTRAL INDIA,
THIRD QUARTER 18TH CENTURY
Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, the lone lady depicted richly
attired, kneeling and worshipping at a shivalingam beneath an opened domed
pavilion on a river bank, fruit oferings to her sides, the bull Nandi behind,
identifcation inscription in white nasta’liq script above, the reverse with
calligraphic panel in elegant nasta’liq script within gilt foral margins, with wide
burnt orange borders with elegant scrolling foral garlands
Painting 9Ω x 5Ωin. (24.2 x 14cm.); Folio16º x 10¡in. (41.3 x 26.4cm.)
£4,000-6,000 $5,700-8,500
€5,000-7,500
Vasant raga is named after the season of renewal, Spring. The scene aptly
depicts the festival of Holi, an auspicious event in the Hindu calendar. Our
illustration shows Krishna dancing and young female courtiers elegantly
moving in unison spraying coloured water suggesting the esoteric dance of
elated beings, the raas leela, leading to a transcendental state resulting in
unlimited love for the deity and the triumph of good over evil. This victory
of illumination over darkness is also very present during Holi festival with
the burning of efigies of Holika on bonfres erected at crossroads and
culminating with the exuberant spraying of colored powders and water.
With its calm ambiance of worship at a deserted shrine on a river bank, our
illustrated album page captures the essence of Bhairav raga which relates to
the earlier times of the day with a mood that is serene or peaceful. Bhairav,
or dog, references the companion of Shiva, to whom this musical mode is
dedicated, when the deity assumes the form of an ascetic wandering the
cremation grounds.
In the Rajasthani tradition Bhairav raga’s iconography consists of a seated
lord being anointed by his female consort while listening to musicians on a
terrace (Klaus Ebeling, Ragamala Painting, Basel, Paris and New Delhi, 1973,
no. 187, p. 241).
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