FOLIO 41 FROM THE EARLIEST KSHEMAKARNA RAGAMALA: VASANT PUTRA OF RAGA HINDOLA


POPULAR MUGHAL, CIRCA 1610Opaque watercolor and gold on paper. Image: 6 x 9 in. (15.1 x 22.7 cm);Folio: 8 7/8 x 11 3/4 in. (22.5 x 29.8 cm)
|Previously attributed to the Deccan, this ragamala series is now thought to be Popular Mughal. The series appears to be the earliest surviving example of Kshemakarna's 1570 text describing the Ragamala. For an illustrated article on this set, see Bautze, "Iconographic Remarks on Some Folios of the Oldest Illustrated Kshemakarna Ragamala", in Exploration in the History of South Asia: Essays in Honour of Dietmar Rothermund, New Delhi, 1999, pp.155-62. Published Ludwig Habighorst, Moghul Ragamala, Ragaputra Edition, Koblenz, 2006, p.86, no.41. Ludwig Habighorst, Blumen – Bäume – Göttergärten, Ragaputra Edition, Koblenz, 2011, p.23, fig.7. Ludwig Habighorst, Der Blaue Gott, Ragaputra Edition, Koblenz, 2014, p.57, fig.22. Harsha Dehejia, Festival of Krishna, New Delhi, 2008, p.401. Exhibited Blumen – Bäume – Göttergärten, Völkerkunde-Museum, Hamburg, 17 March - 27 October 2013. Der Blaue Gott, Mittelrhein-Museum Koblenz, 26 July - 5 October 2014. Provenance Private German Collection