An Illustration from a Ragamala Series: Mangal Putra son of Raga Hindol

Raga Mangal Putra is portrayed in princely attire, leaning against a  large bolster and rewarding two supplicants kneeling before him.

Fairly good overall condition. Small losses to pigment in some areas on the green grass below, on both hands of the main seated figure, in a tiny spot on his eye and ear, on the white sleeve of the standing figure at left and on his green sash and beard, and on the white Jama of the standing figure at right in the area around his waist. Faint crease visible on red ground at the top. Colors brighter than in catalogue illustration. This lot is exhibited in a temporary frame.
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Ragamala paintings are inspired by a genre of poetry that assigned a specific form, mood and ambience to various musical modes. The paintings employ human characters to personify the ragas, and along with various props and architectural compositions, convey the emotional state of the corresponding music and its poetic symbolism. These illustrations therefore form a bridge between music, poetry and painting.

The iconography of each Raga and its descendants was enumerated by Mesakarana, a court priest in Rewa, who composed his Ragamala in 1570. However, it is known that the generations of artists who produced these paintings sometimes digressed from the exactitude of the text and introduced their own creative elements into the paintings. Compare the present lot with a drawing of the same subject, also from Bilaspur, illustrated in Klaus Ebeling, Ragamala Painting, Basel, Paris and New Delhi, 1973, no. 303, p. 273, where the supplicant stands with his hands folded before the prince.

Ragamala paintings were popular in the Rajput and Punjab Hills ateliers and the present illustration bears traces of stylistic elements drawn from both regions. For two other paintings from this series, see Edwin Binney, Rajput Miniatures from the Collection of Edwin Binney 3rd, Portland, 1968, nos. 70a and 70b.