MALWA, MADHYA PRADESH, INDIA, CIRCA 1660 AD

INSCRIPTIONS:
Verso inscribed with identification of the ragini (Khambhavati) and the main raga group (Malakosa) followed by Hindi verses

Our painting represents the musical mode Khambhavati ragini, one of the wives of Malkos, the raga associated with autumn and cool, post-Monsoon weather. The painter portrays Khambavati performing a solitary fire ritual to the four-headed god Brahma, the creator, as a visual expression of the rasa. Another illustration of the same subject was sold in these Rooms, 28 October 2020, lot 67.

The illustration is very similar to, and most probably is part of, a set in the San Diego Museum of Art (1990.955). A further similar illustration is documented in the Klaus Ebeling Ragamala research collection in the Cornell University Library, New York (RM_B2_06_08).