Ragas and Raginis: A Pictorial and Iconographic Study of Indian Musical Modes Based on Original Sources c10.138

c10.138

illustrations, though a small space is left at the top, it is not large enough for quotations of dohās, much less of savaiyās or kavittas, and is used for superscribing the name of the rāga, and the number indicating the place of the rāgiṇī and nothing more (see Plates IX, X). At a later stage, it became the practice to write out the whole text descriptive of the rāgiṇī on the illustration itself, as if to allow connoisseurs to compare and verify if the illustration accurately justified the idea and the situation pictured in the text. Generally, the space for the text for the superscription, pictured at the top, was coloured yellow, so as to offer an effective background against which the text could be easily read. The earliest example for this new practice is represented by two miniatures of Vibhāsā, and Madhumādhavī in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (No. 15.51, and 15.53, here cited on Plates LXXXVII.—A; and LXXXII.—C) which have been roughly dated about 1630 A.D.