Folio from a Ragamala series
Bhramarananda raga, son of Malkos raga
Bilaspur, 1730-40
Opaque pigments and gold on paper, red border
8 ½ by 4 7/8 in., 21.5 by 12.5 cm. miniature
6 7/8 by 10 ½ in., 17.7 by 26.7 cm. folio
Provenance
Galerie Marco Polo, Paris, before 1980
Private collection, Paris, 1980s-2015
In this delicate yet evocative painting, a young man is dancing, swaying to the rhythm of the accompanying tambourine held by his female companion, four bees buzzing round his head.
Ragamalas are sets of paintings that illustrate the descriptive verses that have become attached to the main musical modes of Indian music, conceived in the plains as consisting of six main ragas each with five raginis or wives. In the Pahari tradition from the Punjab Hills, the Meshakarna system first gives each raga a personality and then describes the music in terms of the sounds of nature or of everyday household activities.
Raga Bhramarananda (‘beloved of bees’) is described as a man with a crown and a garland in a colourful garment enjoying himself in a forest and compares the music to the sound of flying bees. Our artist shows the colourful garments and trees and has bees circling round the man’s head.