Desavarati Ragini

Object Details

• School/Tradition

  probably Marwar school

• Inscriptions

  Recto: devanagari script in the top yellow panel which cannot be read because the painting has been trimmed; …? barada bhav…? (...? Barada/Varada [also called Desvarati])

  Verso: inscription in devanagari on the top. Possibly incomplete because number 2 is written which

  desivara ki ragani dipaga [dipak] raga ri 2

  Ragini Desvarati [wife] of Dipak Raga [second verse?] 2

• Label

  Desavarati ragini is embodied as a woman who arches her back while raising her arms over head. The posture, which Molly Emma Aitken has identified as India's "aesthetic icon of the perfectly beautiful woman...." is first seen on the gateways of the Buddhist stupa at Sanchi (1st century BCE) and subsequently and ubiquitously on temples, textiles, ivories and paintings signifying auspiciousness and divine blessings.

  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 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.

• Provenance

  To 1967

  Nowlakah, Calcutta [1]

  From 1967 to 2001

  Ralph Benkaim (1914-2001), purchased from Nowlakah, Calcutta in December 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 Nowlakah, a dealer based in Calcutta, in December 1967, several years before Indian paintings were classified 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

  Nowlakah

  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, Nowlakah

• Place

  Rajasthan state, Marwar, India

• Topic

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

• Culture

  Himalayan peoples, South Asians

• Object Type

  Paintings