.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The painter of this work has followed the main element of the Sanskrit text, which describes the ragaputra as one who takes delight in worshipping the god Vishnu, shown here in a small shrine situated near a lake or stream. He is four-armed and carrying his usual attributes – the discus, mace, lotus and conch. The ragaputra adopts the role of a pujari, or temple priest, holding a garland and performing the rite of arati in which the flame from a metal lamp is waved before the image. He is not depicted dressed in white, or chewing a betel nut as described in the text. On the rocks over which he leans, are garlanded coconuts, vessels for offerings and water together with a pomegranate and some cowrie shells. Four followers from different regions are mentioned in the verse, but only three are shown of whom only one carries a dish of pomegranates. The pomegranate is one of the fruits traditionally offered to a deity in certain circumstances and one of the nine plants that are worshipped in the Durga puja festival.
Although previously attributed to the Deccan, the Ragamala series from which this painting, and that of the preceding lot, come is now more commonly catalogued as popular Mughal. It appears to be the earliest surviving example of Kshemakarna’s text. For an illustrated article on the 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 and Ludwig V. Habighorst, Moghul Ragamala. Gemalte indische Tonfolgen und Dichtung des Kshemakarna, Koblenz, 2006. Other folios from the same manuscript are in the Cleveland Museum of Art (2001.112). Others have sold at Christie’s, New York, 31 March 2005, lot 226 and more recently at Bonham’s, New York, 13 March 2017, lot 3141.
Although previously attributed to the Deccan, the Ragamala series from which this painting, and that of the preceding lot, come is now more commonly catalogued as popular Mughal. It appears to be the earliest surviving example of Kshemakarna’s text. For an illustrated article on the 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 and Ludwig V. Habighorst, Moghul Ragamala. Gemalte indische Tonfolgen und Dichtung des Kshemakarna, Koblenz, 2006. Other folios from the same manuscript are in the Cleveland Museum of Art (2001.112). Others have sold at Christie’s, New York, 31 March 2005, lot 226 and more recently at Bonham’s, New York, 13 March 2017, lot 3141.