Lot Essay
This lot is from the only known ragamala series executed at Malpura, a small thikana fifty miles southwest of Jaipur. The illustration of Asvari ragini from the series, now in the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, bears a colophon with the name of the artist Jai Kishan and the date VS 1813/1756-57AD. Translated by W.G. Archer it reads, "The signed paintings of Jai Kishan of Malpura. Painted for Raiji Moti Ram of Malpura, dated Samvat 1813". Other examples are in the collections of Edwin Binney III, San Diego, the Freer Art Gallery, Washington D.C., and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. See Bonhams 25 October 2007, Lots 374, 375 for two further examples.