Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

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The moon god, illustrating the musical mode Raga Chandrafront

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The moon god, illustrating the musical mode Raga Chandra

  • loan

  • Description

    Ragamala (‘Garland of Ragas’) paintings were believed to depict the essential qualities of the ragas or musical modes, which in the Punjab Hills were grouped with their ‘wives’ and ‘sons’ (ragini and ragaputra) in extended series of 84 pictures. Here the mode Chandra (moon), which is performed in the hours after midnight, is shown as the moon god holding a lotus and riding a blackbuck within the face of a full moon. Other paintings in this exhibition are from the same ragamala series [LI118.83, LI118.86, LI118.85, LI118.114].

  • Details

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    Series
    Garland of Ragas
    Associated place
    Asia › India › north-west India › Jammu and Kashmir › Kathua district › Basohli (probable place of creation)
    Asia › India › north-west India › Punjab Hills › Himachal Pradesh › Nurpur (possible place of creation)
    Date
    c. 1680
    Material and technique
    gouache on paper
    Dimensions
    frame 29.1 x 29 x 1.7 cm (height x width x depth)
    painting 20.6 x 21.2 cm (height x width)
    Material index
    processed material › paper
    Technique index
    decorated › painted,
    painted,
    covered › coated › painted,
    marked › painted
    Object type index
    visual representation › painting › ragamala,
    visual representation › calligraphy
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Lent by Howard Hodgkin.
    Accession no.
    LI118.84

  • Further reading

    Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2nd February-22nd April 2012, Visions of Mughal India: The Collection of Howard Hodgkin, Andrew Topsfield, ed. (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2012), no. 53 on p. 130, pp. 18, 19, 130, 132, 136, & 138, illus. p. 131

Glossary (2)

Raga, Ragamala

  • Raga

    Raga (feminine ragini) are musical modes, often represented by compositions of ladies, lovers, warriors, animals or gods, in series of Ragamala ('Garland of Ragas') paintings, a very popular artistic genre in north India and the Deccan c. 1500 - 1800.

  • Ragamala

    Raga (feminine ragini) are musical modes, often represented by compositions of ladies, lovers, warriors, animals or gods, in series of Ragamala ('Garland of Ragas') paintings, a very popular artistic genre in north India and the Deccan c. 1500 - 1800.

Past Exhibition

see (1)

Location

    • Returned to lender

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

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