DELHI SCHOOL, INDIA, CIRCA 1800

Details

KHAMBAVATI RAGINI
DELHI SCHOOL, INDIA, CIRCA 1800
Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, in late Shah Jahan style border, with identification inscription in lower margin in black nasta'liq, pasted on plain card
Painting 8 1/8 x 5 1/8in. (21 x 13cm.); folio 18 1/8 x 11 7/8in. (46 x 30cm.)

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These lots have been imported from outside the EU or, if the UK has withdrawn from the EU without an agreed transition deal, from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime.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

Brought to you by

Sara Plumbly

splumbly@christies.com +44 20 7389 2374

Lot Essay

This scene is a symbolic representation of a musical melody. In Hindustani classical music, there are no set compositions but frameworks, called ragas, on which musicians build each recital. Our painting represents the musical mode khambavati ragini, one of the wives of Malkos, the raga associated with autumn and cool, post-Monsoon weather. The painter portrays khambavati as a beautiful young woman performing a solitary fire ritual to the four-headed god Brahma, the creator, as a visual expression of the rasa.

More from Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds Including Oriental Rugs and Carpets

View All