BUNDI, RAJASTHAN, NORTH WEST INDIA, CIRCA 1740-60

Details

AN ILLUSTRATION TO A RAGAMALA SERIES: BHAIRAVI RAGINI
BUNDI, RAJASTHAN, NORTH WEST INDIA, CIRCA 1740-60
Opaque pigments heightened with gold and silver on paper, depicting ladies worshipping a Shiva lingam in the forest, lacking its borders
Painting 7 ½ x 4 3/8in. (19 x 11cm.)

Provenance

Sotheby’s, New York, 14 October 1980, lot 267
Doris Wiener Gallery, New York, acquired from the above
The Doris Wiener Collection; sold Christie's, New York, 20 March 2012, lot 258

Special notice

These lots have been imported from outside the EU or, if the UK has withdrawn from the EU without an agreed transition deal, from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

A lady worshipping at a Shiva lingam is the typical Rajasthani iconography for Bhairavi ragini, the first wife of Bhairava raga. Bhairava, another name for Shiva, is the fierce manifestation of the deity. Here the ragini is depicted making offerings at a shrine of Shiva accompanied by two ladies at a riverside. A diminutive Nandi bull below looks up at the lingam. For a comparable ragamala illustration from Amber, dating circa 1709, which depicts a lady worshipping at an Shiva lingam accompanied by a female attendant, see Ebeling, 1973, p.265, no.276.

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