Kamod Ragini

The character of court painting in Rajasthan owes as much to local, non-imperial styles as it does to the Mughal court. This is brilliantly demonstrated in the Sirohi ragamalas that were produced around 1690 in southwest Rajasthan for non-court patrons. This exuberant and luminous Kamod Ragini is from the first and finest of the sets.

In a hilly landscape, two women bring offerings to a shrine, one of whom pauses to feed two peacocks. An orange-tinged sky suggests early evening, the time of day in which Kamod is traditionally performed. The composition and palette are precisely calculated: The playful rectangles evoking architectural forms in the lower registers, the red window set squarely into the middle of a yellow hillside, and the peacock tail, banana leaf and temple spire that jut beyond the borders are signs of a master of abstraction.

The style is rooted in pre-Mughal tradition, particularly its bold use of red, strong color contrasts, the modulating contour line that conveys the weight of bodies, and the squarish heads of the women.

Raga (Sanskrit, color or passion) is the term for a classical music mode, a set framework for improvisation. Having originated in the first millennium, ragas were systematized and classified during the thirteenth through sixteenth century, they were classified into ragamalas, meaning garlands of musical modes. A common system recognized six raga husbands, each "married" to five ragini wives for a total of thirty-six "families." Families of musical modes sometimes included sons or ragaputras as well. By the fifteenth century, ragas had become associated with specific moods, times, seasons, affective properties, deities, lovers, and heroes. Around 1590-1620, illustrated ragamala series became a favorite subject for Rajput patrons, as well as for some Mughals, such as Abd-ur Rahim, patron of the Freer Ramayana and the Laud Ragamala. Specific iconographies were developed for depicting each mode. These formulae lent themselves to variations, which were sometimes dependent on region.

Illustrated ragas evoke mood and engender feeling, as do musical compositions. But the connection seems to be indirect. Although some connoisseurs of music may have internally "heard" a composition when viewing its image, ragamalas were probably more broadly valued for their poetic and pictorial pleasures. The commission of a ragamala series would also have been understood as a sign of a patron's cultivated sensibility.