Ragas and Raginis: A Pictorial and Iconographic Study of Indian Musical Modes Based on Original Sources c10.156

c10.156

A complete set of rāga-mālā text is cited on a complete series of pictures which, at one time, belonged to a dealer in Jaipur (here cited as ‘Jaipur Private Collection’). This series (cited here in twelve examples: Plates II, VII, XII, XIII, LVI, LVII, LVIII, LXII, LXXV, LXXVI, LXXVII) of miniatures are not of much aesthetic merit, (though the treatment of the trees is quite distinctive), being apparently copies of better versions. But their interest lies in the fact that they have helped to fill up one or two gaps which occur in the available series of complete illustrations. As a rule, complete series of rāginī pictures are now almost impossible to obtain. This series (the present provenance of which is unknown) offers an illustration of Taṅka rāginī (Plate LXXVII) of which only one other illustration has been traced. The author of this text, who has composed the descriptions in *modaka chanda*, gives his name twice, once in the copāī and once in the terminating dohā describing Deskārī rāgiṇī (Plate LXXV, D): ‘Paidā says: She is fond of pleasing her lover’; ‘To be sung in the fourth hour, so says Paidā.’ After giving a description of each melody, the poet indicates in the closing couplet, the note-structure of the melody and the appropriate time and season for its singing. The style of the poet is simple and devoid of flourish, or ornamentations. The quality of his verse may be judged from a typical copāī, describing Māru rāgiṇī (Plate LVII). He seems to have been a mediocre versifier, not having found a place in anthologies and his name is not noticed by any compilers of Hindī poems.