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Asavari Ragini thumbnail 2
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Not currently on display at the V&A

Asavari Ragini

Painting
1605 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

A raga is a traditional Hindu musical form. This page (and Museum no. IS.39-1953) comes from a ragamala ('garland of ragas'), a set of paintings in which each raga is represented by a scene or person. Here, Asavari ragini is depicted as a tribal woman in a peacock-feather skirt feeding flowers to a snake in a rocky landscape. The colophon of the set (not in the V&A collection) states that it was painted by the artist Nasiruddin at Chawand in the year 1605. A colophon is a short text at the end of a set of paintings that gives the date and place where it was completed. Chawand was the capital of the Rajput kingdom of Mewar before the foundation of Udaipur. This set of paintings is the earliest dated Rajasthani ragamala and is therefore an important milestone in the history of Rajasthani painting.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleAsavari Ragini (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Painted in opaque watercolour on paper
Brief description
Painting, asavari ragini, woman charming snakes in a rocky landscape, by Nasiruddin, opaque watercolour on paper, Chawand, 1605
Physical description
Painting, in opaque watercolour on paper, a lady in a peacock skirt charms snakes out of the trees. This painting illustrates the musical mode asavari ragini and is from a ragamala series dated 1605.
Dimensions
  • Height: 207mm
  • Width: 186mm
  • Paper onto which object mounted height: 251mm
  • Paper onto which object mounted width: 225mm
  • Image within innermost painted borders height: 158mm
  • Image within innermost painted borders width: 150mm
05/06/2013 dimensions measured as part of Indian Paintings Cataloguing Project 2013
Content description
A lady in a peacock skirt charms snakes out of the trees.
Style
Subjects depicted
Summary
A raga is a traditional Hindu musical form. This page (and Museum no. IS.39-1953) comes from a ragamala ('garland of ragas'), a set of paintings in which each raga is represented by a scene or person. Here, Asavari ragini is depicted as a tribal woman in a peacock-feather skirt feeding flowers to a snake in a rocky landscape. The colophon of the set (not in the V&A collection) states that it was painted by the artist Nasiruddin at Chawand in the year 1605. A colophon is a short text at the end of a set of paintings that gives the date and place where it was completed. Chawand was the capital of the Rajput kingdom of Mewar before the foundation of Udaipur. This set of paintings is the earliest dated Rajasthani ragamala and is therefore an important milestone in the history of Rajasthani painting.
Bibliographic reference
Topsfield, Andrew, Court Painting at Udaipur, Museum Rietberg, Zurich, 2001, ISBN 3-907077-03-2 p. 22, fig 6 Swallow, Deborah and John Guy eds. Arts of India: 1550-1900. text by Rosemary Crill, John Guy, Veronica Murphy, Susan Stronge and Deborah Swallow. London : V&A Publications, 1990. 240 p., ill. ISBN 1851770224, p.132, pl.113.
Collection
Accession number
IS.38-1953

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Record createdJanuary 3, 2003
Record URL
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