Kakubha Ragini, folio from a Ragamala

Object Details

• School/Tradition

  probably Marwar school

• Inscriptions

  Verso: (center) in devanagari Kukum Ragini (Kakubha Ragini)

  (top) in a later hand in blue ink, 8000 crossed out; Rs. 5000

• Label

  Kakubha Ragini, a wife of Megha Raga, has the mood of a heroine deserted by her lover. Holding two lotus flower garlands, Kakubha wanders sadly in a grove with two peacocks, whose plaintive cries would have been understood as echoing her feelings of dejection.

  Raga (Sanskrit, color or passion) is the term for a classical music mode, a set framework for improvisation. Having originated in the first millennium, ragas were systematized and classified during the thirteenth through sixteenth century, they were classified into ragamalas, meaning garlands of musical modes. A common system recognized six raga husbands, each "married" to five ragini wives for a total of thirty-six "families." Families of musical modes sometimes included sons or ragaputras as well. By the fifteenth century, ragas had become associated with specific moods, times, seasons, affective properties, deities, lovers, and heroes. Around 1590-1620, illustrated ragamala series became a favorite subject for Rajput patrons, as well as for some Mughals, such as Abd-ur Rahim, patron of the Freer Ramayana and the Laud Ragamala. Specific iconographies were developed for depicting each mode. These formulae lent themselves to variations, which were sometimes dependent on region.

  Illustrated ragas evoke mood and engender feeling, as do musical compositions. But the connection seems to be indirect. Although some connoisseurs of music may have internally "heard" a composition when viewing its image, ragamalas were probably more broadly valued for their poetic and pictorial pleasures. The commission of a ragamala series would also have been understood as a sign of a patron's cultivated sensibility.

• Provenance

  To 1967

  Sundaram, New Delhi [1]

  From 1967 to 2001

  Ralph Benkaim (1914-2001), purchased from Sundaram, New Delhi in December in 1967 [2]

  From 2001 to 2018

  Catherine Glynn Benkaim, Beverly Hills, California, by inheritance from Ralph Benkaim in 2001

  From 2018

  Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, partial gift and purchase from Catherine Glynn Benkaim

  Notes:

  [1] Ralph Benkaim purchased the painting from Sundaram, New Delhi in December 1967, several years before Indian paintings were categorized as antiquities by the Indian government, according to his personal records, as relayed by Catherine Glynn Benkaim.

  [2] See note 1.

• Collection

  National Museum of Asian Art Collection

• Previous custodian or owner

  Sundaram (India, active 1960's)

  Ralph and Catherine Benkaim

  Catherine Glynn Benkaim

• Origin

  probably Marwar, Rajasthan state, India

• Credit Line

  Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection — funds provided by the Friends of the National Museum of Asian Art

• Type

  Painting

• Restrictions and Rights

  CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1630s, 1620s

• Name

  Benkaim, Ralph and Catherine, Benkaim, Catherine Glynn, Sundaram

• Place

  Rajasthan state, Marwar, India

• Topic

  South Asian and Himalayan Art, Peacock, Art, Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection, Flowers, Ragamala, Woman

• Culture

  Himalayan peoples, South Asians

• Object Type

  Paintings