AN ILLUSTRATION TO A RAGAMALA SERIES: VARDHANA RAGAPUTRA

A. Heeramaneck, Masterpieces of Indian Painting, Verona, 1984,  p.119, pl. 107

A Lord dressed to leave on a battle campaign proudly says farewell to his beloved. She dutifully reaches to touch his feet as a gesture of respect and love. He wears a vertically striped jama with flower designs and a striped Mughal-style pagri (cap) one hand upraised in a gesture of hopeful reuniting - his other hand reaching to touch her head. Her handmaiden also pointing upward hoping that fate will be kind to them.  His adjutant stands waiting just outside their pavilion pressing anxiously forward in anticipation of leaving.  We can hear him thinking “we must depart my lord.” A brilliant juxtaposition of primary colors with vibrant red background / yellow interior and outer borders all under a portentous indigo blue sky.  

Other leaves from this superb series have been in the Edwin Binney 3rd. Collection, the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and others worldwide.

Refer to Edwin Binney III, Rajput Miniatures from the Collection of Edwin Binney III, Portland, 1968, cat. 70, pp. 92 and D. Ehnbom, Indian Miniatures: The Ehrenfeld Collection, New York, cat. 105,  pp. 212-13, and Sotheby’s New York, March 19, 2008, lot 231. For a similar subject in another related series see Sotheby’s London, October, 2014, Lot 312.