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Lot Essay
The Lalita raga is a morning raga and is performed before the break of dawn. According to Mesakarna’s text describing this melody, the music is compared to the voice of a swan. When the text was visualised by Pahari artists, cranes became a substitute for the swans. No ragamala paintings are known which depict the aforementioned swan. In the Kshemakarna classification of ragamalas, sarus cranes in particular are a distinguishing characteristic of Lalita Ragaputra, as illustrated in our example. (C. Glynn, A. Dallapiccola, R. Skelton, Ragamala: Paintings from India from the Claudio Moscatelli Collection, London, 2011, pg. 52).
Seated between three different varieties of trees, our hero is feeding a garland of flowers to two cranes with both hands while wearing a longer garland around his neck. Beautifully dressed, he wears a brightly patterned turban, a silver jama and the end of his scarf with flowering plants are heightened with gold.
For other comparable representations of Lalita Ragaputra in Pahari paintings, see Waldschmidt, 1967, fig. 23 (Bilaspur, circa 1750); Ebeling 1973, fig. 328 (Mankot, circa 1700); Archer 1973, Kulu 13 (viii) (Kulu, circa 1700).
For another folio and further discussion on this ragamala series, see lot 22 in the sale.
Seated between three different varieties of trees, our hero is feeding a garland of flowers to two cranes with both hands while wearing a longer garland around his neck. Beautifully dressed, he wears a brightly patterned turban, a silver jama and the end of his scarf with flowering plants are heightened with gold.
For other comparable representations of Lalita Ragaputra in Pahari paintings, see Waldschmidt, 1967, fig. 23 (Bilaspur, circa 1750); Ebeling 1973, fig. 328 (Mankot, circa 1700); Archer 1973, Kulu 13 (viii) (Kulu, circa 1700).
For another folio and further discussion on this ragamala series, see lot 22 in the sale.