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Lot Essay
This refined Ragamala folio from Aurangabad, circa 1650, represents Lalita Ragini, the consort of Bhairava Raga, in a scene suffused with emotional complexity and morning stillness. More than a mere musical mode personified, Lalita Ragini becomes a poetic meditation on longing, separation, and romantic devotion.
The scene is set in an open pavilion, its pale mauve and white architecture gently dividing the space between heroine and hero. The sleeping woman lies beneath an embroidered orange cintamani skirt, her attendant dozing beside her with a morchal (flywhisk) still raised, a testament to their vigil and now, their exhaustion.
The departing lover stands poised, clad in a luminous gold jama patterned with rows of poppies. In his hand, he raises a single white blossom plucked from the garland he holds, pausing to inhale its scent as he looks back at the sleeping figure he leaves behind. His tiger-like grace is tempered by a quiet melancholy, he is at once virile and vulnerable, a warrior subdued by love.
The ornate carpet beneath them, a recurring motif in this series, is boldly patterned with scrolling floral arabesques set against a deep blue ground, anchored by a central red medallion. Its visual density echoes the emotional tension in the scene.
This Ragamala painting would be looked at whilst accompanied by a Hindi couplet by the 17th century poet Lachiman Das, intensifying its emotional atmosphere: “A tiger hero, swaggering and truculent, seeming to be the slave of Love. Who can tell when he returns, roaring like an elephant?”. These words transform the image into a multisensory experience: a soundscape, a scent, a memory of touch, all unfolding in the liminal space between night and day, presence and absence.
This work is emblematic of a hybrid regional style that emerged in Aurangabad around 1650, where Rajput figure traditions fused with Deccani aesthetic sensibilities. The figures’ expressive gestures and muscular modeling reflect Rajasthani influence, while the restrained palette, featuring mauve, blue, and soft pink, draws from Deccani taste.
The provenance of the painting, notably from the collection of Stuart Cary Welch, underscores its scholarly and connoisseurial importance. As Welch and others observed, works from this Aurangabad–Mewar school were central to the development of a distinctive Ragamala idiom that flourished under the patronage of both Mughal and local courts in the Deccan.
This folio of Lalita Ragini is not merely an illustration of musical mode it is a lyrical drama in miniature, where textiles, architecture, poetry, and figural gesture coalesce into a powerful visual melody of yearning and parting. It stands as a testament to the sophistication of mid-17th century Deccani painting and its ability to distill complex emotional states into compelling pictorial form.
The scene is set in an open pavilion, its pale mauve and white architecture gently dividing the space between heroine and hero. The sleeping woman lies beneath an embroidered orange cintamani skirt, her attendant dozing beside her with a morchal (flywhisk) still raised, a testament to their vigil and now, their exhaustion.
The departing lover stands poised, clad in a luminous gold jama patterned with rows of poppies. In his hand, he raises a single white blossom plucked from the garland he holds, pausing to inhale its scent as he looks back at the sleeping figure he leaves behind. His tiger-like grace is tempered by a quiet melancholy, he is at once virile and vulnerable, a warrior subdued by love.
The ornate carpet beneath them, a recurring motif in this series, is boldly patterned with scrolling floral arabesques set against a deep blue ground, anchored by a central red medallion. Its visual density echoes the emotional tension in the scene.
This Ragamala painting would be looked at whilst accompanied by a Hindi couplet by the 17th century poet Lachiman Das, intensifying its emotional atmosphere: “A tiger hero, swaggering and truculent, seeming to be the slave of Love. Who can tell when he returns, roaring like an elephant?”. These words transform the image into a multisensory experience: a soundscape, a scent, a memory of touch, all unfolding in the liminal space between night and day, presence and absence.
This work is emblematic of a hybrid regional style that emerged in Aurangabad around 1650, where Rajput figure traditions fused with Deccani aesthetic sensibilities. The figures’ expressive gestures and muscular modeling reflect Rajasthani influence, while the restrained palette, featuring mauve, blue, and soft pink, draws from Deccani taste.
The provenance of the painting, notably from the collection of Stuart Cary Welch, underscores its scholarly and connoisseurial importance. As Welch and others observed, works from this Aurangabad–Mewar school were central to the development of a distinctive Ragamala idiom that flourished under the patronage of both Mughal and local courts in the Deccan.
This folio of Lalita Ragini is not merely an illustration of musical mode it is a lyrical drama in miniature, where textiles, architecture, poetry, and figural gesture coalesce into a powerful visual melody of yearning and parting. It stands as a testament to the sophistication of mid-17th century Deccani painting and its ability to distill complex emotional states into compelling pictorial form.