
Mark Rasmussen
International Director
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Sold for US$10,000 inc. premium
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International Director
Out with bimba fruit red lips, with wrist rings of ivory, gold rings on the ear, a red translucent exquisite bodice, beaded chains on the chest; as Saurashtra language, Dakshini and Dravadini it is, 'oh ha!', the leading and most heavenly dressed Gurjari fourfold by the wise Maharajikas familiar. Gurjari, the Dipaka fourth Ragini.
Previously attributed to the Deccan, this ragamala series is now thought to be popular Mughal. It appears to be the earliest surviving example of Kshemakarna's text. For an illustrated article on this set, see Bautze, "Iconographic Remarks on Some Folios of the oldest Illustrated Kshemakarna Ragamala", Exploration in the History of South Asia: Essays in Honour of Dietmar Rothermund, New Delhi, 1999, pp. 155-62.
Another page from this series is held in the Cleveland Museum of Art (2001.112). Two are held in the Claudio Moscatelli Collection, (Glynn et al., Ragamala, London, 2011, pp. 66-9, nos. 14 & 15; and Aitken, "The Laud Ragamala Album, Bikaner, and the Sociability of Sub-imperial Painting", Archives Asian Art, Vol. 63, No.1, 2013, p. 44). Others from the series sold at Christie's, New York, 31 March 2005, lot 226 and Bonhams, New York, 17 March 2014, lot 104.
Published:
Ludwig Habighorst, Moghul Ragamala, Ragaputra Edition, Koblenz, 2006, p. 91, folio 47.
Provenance:
Private Collection, Germany