Untitled

Mohamed

1714 · Ink and opaque watercolor on paper · Asian Art

Within the ragamala tradition the association of music, text, and image is not always obvious. In this instance, in accord with visualizing music in a heroic mode, a male figure is described in the text as “[g]ripping his sword [as] he moves about the field of battle.” Yet this text also refers to a ragini, making the musical mode feminine, and hence the protagonist should presumably be a woman. While there are examples of this scene with a woman dressed as a warrior, more often, as we see here, it is a male figure. Such contradictions are common within the ragamala genre.

Artist

Mohamed

Date

1714

Medium

Ink and opaque watercolor on paper

Culture

India (Rajasthan, Bikaner)

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Gift of John and Evelyn Kossak, The Kronos Collections, 1980