A painting from a Ragamala: Karnoti Ragini

INDIA, AURANGABAD, CIRCA 1680

Details

A painting from a Ragamala: Karnoti Ragini
India, Aurangabad, circa 1680
Depicting a dark-skinned woman dancing on a pavilion and accepting wine from an attendant, surrounded by musicians in a garden with a palace wall behind them, with two lines of inscription at top, all surrounded by red borders with page numbers
Opaque pigments and gold on wasli
15 x 10 in. (38 x 25.4 cm.)

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Lot Essay

The inscription above contains text from verse 70 from Mesakarna's classification of ragamala paintings followed by "Sri Sri," indicating the Karnati ragini is the second wife of the Sri raga. Mesakarna describes the iconography of the ragini consisting of a dark-skinned woman dancing and frolicking continuously while its sound corresponds to a wind-torn garment; see K. Ebeling, Ragamala Painting, 1973, p. 72, no. 104

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