TWO ILLUSTRATIONS TO A RAGAMALA SERIES: SINDHAVA RAGAPUTRA, DESAKH RAGAPUTRA

Two Pahari folios from the same ragamala series, most likely from Bilaspur and of early-mid 18th Century date, based upon iconographies found almost exclusively in the Punjab Hills. 

Sindhava Ragaputra: a warrior nobleman dressed for a battle campaign with sword, katar (fist dagger) and round black shield - leaps into the saddle of his elegant white horse held by a groom.  Against a flat green landscape background with a swath of blue sky and white-lined clouds above.  

In the companion folio Desakh Ragaputra: a nobleman rides an expressively galloping white horse - his arm extended outward gesturing.  Against a flat mossy-green landscape rising to a blue sky with white clouds.  Small mounds of green vegetation beneath the horse's hoofs appear in both paintings. 

Other versions of these ragamala subjects, from various related Pahari courts of the 18th Century, may be compared to our present folios: the Edwin Binney 3rd Collection (Sindhava from Mankot ca. 1700), the Jagdish Mittal Collection (Kulu late 18th century described as "Maru") and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Desakh from Bilaspur, also from the Heeramaneck Collection).  Also note another ragamala subject (Bhaskara Ragaputra) from a relatable Mid-Eighteenth Century Bilaspur series in the Collection of the Brooklyn Museum, New York, (accession no. 36.244).

Refer to Klaus Ebeling, Ragamala Painting, Basel, 1973, cat. 315 and 317, p. 277; Sam Fogg, Indian Paintings and Manuscripts, London, 1999, no. 57; Amy G. Poster, Realms of Heroism, New York, 1994, no. 199, p. 244; and E. and R. L. Waldschmidt, Miniatures of Musical Inspiration, Wiesbaden, 1967 vol. 1, Figs. 66 and 69.