Saranga Ragini (painting, recto), from a Ragamala (Garland of Melodies) Series

The three registers of the painting depict scenes associated with the Saranga Ragini. In the center register, is the core iconographic feature of the Saranga Ragini: a lady listening to music. Here a royal woman, seated cross-legged under an awning, faces a pair of musicians. One of the musicians plays a double-faced drum or a mridangam, while the other plays cymbals or a manjira. The top register depicts other women of the royal household. At the bottom of the painting is a group leading a chariot. The figures seated in the chariot could be identified as Rama, the seventh avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu and his consort, Sita, and those leading could be the monkey-god Hanuman alongside Rama’s three brothers, Lakshmana, Bharata and Shatrughna. Rama, Sita, and Hanuman are primary figures in the Hindu epic, the Ramayana. This painting is a pictorial metaphor for a raga, a musical phrase that is used as the basis for improvisation, possibly belonging to a Ragamala or “Garland of melodies” which was produced at the Mewar court in the late seventeenth century. Another painting from the same series is 1931.16, 1931.18, 1931.19 and 1932.32. Rajput, Rajasthani, Mewar School.