Ragas and Raginis: A Pictorial and Iconographic Study of Indian Musical Modes Based on Original Sources c11.1

c11.1

That rāga-mālā pictures have been painted, (in different parts of Northern India), whether in relation to specific Hindī texts, or independently, throughout the centuries right up to the nineteenth, is amply borne out by the large number of surviving miniatures. The demand for these specimens of “visualized music” must have been continuous, and wide-spread, and, in order to meet the demand, skeleton drawings (*khākās*, pricked drawings), and other outline sketches from the patterns designed by gifted artists were used by lesser artists who found it profitable to meet the popular demand. An interesting series of skeleton drawings (not pricked outlines), from the Tagore Collection are collected on Plate CXIII and other examples are cited on other plates for purposes of comparison (Plates I-A, XIII-B). On the drawings in the Tagore collection are inscribed in Hindī and Persian, the names of the rāginīs, with indications and suggestions for the colour schemes. They must have been the basis of finished miniatures, although no finished specimen corresponding to these particular designs, has yet been traced. The most interesting of these series is the one representing Hāṃvirī (Plate LXLVIII-C) which has helped to identify the well-known miniatures (Plate LXLVIII, A and B), not, hitherto, recognized as illustrations of the rāginī. The drawing for Bhairo (Plate I, A), also helps us to identify an analogous drawing (Boston Museum, CCXI, No. 17.2822) as an illustration of the melody. The example in the author’s collection (Plate XIII-B) is perhaps the finest specimen, both in its elaborate pattern and impressive setting.