AN ILLUSTRATION TO A RAGAMALA SERIES: TODI RAGINI

Estimate

3,000 - 5,000 USD

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Description

AN ILLUSTRATION TO A RAGAMALA SERIES: TODI RAGINI
Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper
image: 8 1/4 by 5 1/2 in. (21 by 14 cm);
folio: 10 5/8 by 7 3/4 in. (26.9 by 19.6 cm) unframed

Catalogue Note

A solitary nayika plucking her vina with one hand charms a male deer and two does in a lush forest glade filled with blossoming trees. A peacock crows while pairs of herons and ducks observe. Todi Ragini, perhaps a metaphor for loneliness.

"Divide from her darling

and most unhappy in love

like a nun renouncing the world,

Todi abides in the grove and

charms the hearts of the does."

(A. K. Coomaraswamy)

Refer to Klaus Ebeling, Ragamala Painting, Basel, 1973, cat. C18 and pp. 60-61 and Pratapaditya Pal, Ragamala Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, cover photo and cat. 73, pp.72.