AN ILLUSTRATION FROM A RAGAMALA SERIES: BHAIRAVI RAGINI
Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, Central India, c. 1750

Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, the vertical composition depicting a lady in the centre fondling a bull carrying rows of ceremonial bells around his neck, an attendant standing behind the nayika and waving a fly-whisk over her head, within narrow black and white lines, and bright red borders, the upper border with a fainted black ink Takri inscription identifying the Ragini and the type of musical mode of the illustration, the recto with one line of Takri script, mounted on white cardboard frame, 21cm x 17.8cm excluding the mount.

W. G. Archer has described this Ragamala series as being noted for the use of cleanly modelled forms, suave precise design and sharply phrased faces (Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills, 1973, vol.1, p. 237). Another page from this series is illustrated in A. Poster, Realms of Heroism, 1994, p. 244, no. 199. For a similar Bhairavi Ragini depiction, please see K. Ebeling, Ragamala Painting, 1973, p. 276.