Enrica Medugno
Senior Sale Coordinator
Lot 178
Two sages seated on a terrace with vinas, perhaps a ragamala scene Pahari, Punjab Hills, circa 1840
12 November 2024, 11:00 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £640 inc. premium
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Oliver White
Head of Department
Two sages seated on a terrace with vinas, perhaps a ragamala scene
Pahari, Punjab Hills, circa 1840
Pahari, Punjab Hills, circa 1840
gouache and gold on paper, panel at bottom with three lines of text written in nagari script in black ink, floral inner border, lacking outer border
297 x 236 mm.
297 x 236 mm.
Footnotes
The subject depicted may be Kanara raga, son of Megha. For another Pahari example (Bilaspur, circa 1700-20), which depicts two men with vinas seated facing each other, see Simon Ray, Indian and Islamic Works of Art, April 2006, pp. 132-133, no. 61. However, there both men are playing, which is not the case in our painting. Ray notes a Pahari drawing in K. Ebeling, Ragamala Painting, 1973, p. 293, no. 375, depicting Kanada Putra of Megha, in which one man plays the vina while the other, without an instrument, appears to clap his hands to the beat. The outstretched hand of the man on the right in our painting may imply a similar marking of the rhythm. On the other hand, his priestly appearance, and the religious marks on the faces of both, may suggest another interpretation.
For another work perhaps from the same ragamala series, see Sotheby's, Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art including Indian Miniature Paintings, 8th June 2012, lot 14 (Bangali Ragini of Bhairava Raga); and the sale in these rooms, India in Art, 7th June 2022, lot 76 (depicting kanphat yogis).