Ragas and Raginis: A Pictorial and Iconographic Study of Indian Musical Modes Based on Original Sources c10.129

c10.129

lection and in the Boston Museum (Plate XXXVII)] which in Dr. Coomaraswamy’s translation does not reveal the emotive flavour of the melody, and which in our version, appropriately illustrates the situation of a Khaṇḍitā nayikā, (‘one whose love has been dishonoured by the lover spending the night with another and returning in the morning’) as shown in the two illustrations cited on the plate. ‘It is not the visit of the enemy to the hero’s wife while the hero is abroad’ as suggested (Coomaraswamy’s Catalogue, Part V, p. 72), on a wrong interpretation of the meaning of the terse and obscure text. ‘His lips are red with chewing betel-leaf [Rāgai (not Bāgai) birā], his robes are fragrant, or luminous with sandal (āgar dūtī), the dishevelled state of his whole body shuts out the god of Love’ [“rupu vāriyatu main(u)”]. These details suggesting a night passed with another lover justifies the interpretation of a Khaṇḍitā-nayikā, who is unable in her resentment to utter any words—‘after seeing such a sight how can the elephant-gaited one speak’ (“phiri kaisai kahi sakai gaja gāminī sau bain”).