Suhavi Ragini of Megha, attributable to an early master of the Bahu School, Bahu (Jammu), circa 1700-20

gouache on paper, with mustard yellow margins, laid down on stout paper, inscribed above in takri script 'Suhavi ragini meghadi bharaja'

Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (1877-1947)
Maggs Bros. Ltd., London
Acquired in 1967

In good overall condition, as viewed.
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This Ragamala illustration is from an important and well-known series produced at Bahu (Jammu) in the early years of the eighteenth century. Thirty-two illustrations are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, six in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and further examples in private and other institutional collections. A large part of the extant group (including the present miniature) were brought to the West by Ananda K. Coomaraswamy in about 1920. It was said of some of them that while Coomaraswamy was staying with friends in north-west England he befriended their gardener and gave him several miniatures on his departure (see Falk in Sotheby's, London, 29 April 1992, lot 16). 

Ananda K. Coomaraswamy was an art historian of enormous importance in introducing Indian art to the West and promoting its appreciation and study. Born in Colombo in 1877, he moved to England in 1879, before returning to Colombo in 1902. Within a few years he returned to England fully engaged in his new artistic career. He moved to the United States in 1917 to take up the post of the first keeper of Indian Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He wrote many books on Indian art, philosophy and aesthetics. He died in 1947.

The series appears to have been produced a few years after the first group of illustrations for the so-called Shangri Ramayana and may be contemporary with the others within that series, painted after a break in production (see Kossak in Beach, Fischer and Goswamy 2011, pp.491-500, who distinguishes between the artist dubbed by him "the First Bahu Master" and other masters painting in a closely related style a few years later).

For discussions of the artists of the early Bahu school see Archer 1973, vol.1. pp.317-336, vol.2, pp.237-252; Goswamy and Fischer 1992, pp.76-93, Kossak in Beach, Fischer and Goswamy 2011, pp.491-500. For illustrations of many of the examples in the Victoria and Albert Museum (described under the Kulu school) see Archer 1973, vol.2, pp.247-9, pls.13(i)-13(xxxii). For other pages from the same set, see Coomaraswamy 1926, pp.96-99, nos.LXVII-LXXII, pls.XXXII-XXXIII; Cleveland et al. 1975-77, no.111; Goswamy and Fischer 1992, p.93, no.35; Kramrisch 1986, p.110, no.100; Portland et al. 1968-69, pp.82-83, no.59; Topsfield (ed.) 2004, pp.378-9, no.168; Sotheby's, London, 7 December 1971, lot 185; 15 October 1984, lots 120-1; 29 April 1992 (Bachofen von Echt Collection), lot 16; Sotheby’s, New York, 26 March 1998, lot 15. See also lot 87 in this catalogue.

Ragamala ('Garland of Ragas') subjects were among the most popular from the earliest times in Ragput painting. In the Punjab Hills, these series of paintings numbered eighty-four, whereas the usual number was thirty-six. Composed of scenes from poetic texts reflecting particular North Indian musical modes, the thirty-six were composed of ragas and their 'wives', raginis; in the Hills the increased number included the 'sons' of ragas, ragaputras. In this case the illustration is Suhavi Ragini of Megha, a seated woman being fanned by another standing with a yak-tailed fly whisk, see Ebeling 1973, p.285, as P1 under no.345.