Desavarati Ragini
date: label: Date
content: ca. 1630
notes: label: School/Tradition
content: probably Marwar school
label: Inscriptions
content: 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])
label: Inscriptions
content: Verso: inscription in devanagari on the top. Possibly incomplete because number 2 is written which
label: Inscriptions
content: desivara ki ragani dipaga [dipak] raga ri 2
label: Inscriptions
content: Ragini Desvarati [wife] of Dipak Raga [second verse?] 2
label: Label
content: 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.
label: Label
content: 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.
label: Provenance
content: To 1967
label: Provenance
content: Nowlakah, Calcutta [1]
label: Provenance
content: From 1967 to 2001
label: Provenance
content: Ralph Benkaim (1914-2001), purchased from Nowlakah, Calcutta in December 1967 [2]
label: Provenance
content: From 2001 to 2018
label: Provenance
content: Catherine Glynn Benkaim, Beverly Hills, California, by inheritance from Ralph Benkaim in 2001
label: Provenance
content: From 2018
label: Provenance
content: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, partial gift and purchase from Catherine Glynn Benkaim
label: Provenance
content: Notes:
label: Provenance
content: [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.
label: Provenance
content: [2] See note 1.
label: Collection
content: National Museum of Asian Art Collection
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Nowlakah
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Ralph and Catherine Benkaim
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Catherine Glynn Benkaim (born 1946)
place: label: Origin
content: probably Marwar, Rajasthan state, India
topic: label: Topic
content: woman
label: Topic
content: ragamala
label: Topic
content: India
label: Topic
content: South Asian and Himalayan Art
label: Topic
content: Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection
setName: label: See more items in
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection — funds provided by the Friends of the National Museum of Asian Art
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: S2018.1.52
objectType: label: Type
content: Painting
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (painting): 16.8 × 14.6 cm (6 5/8 × 5 3/4 in)
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (overall): 19.7 × 16.5 cm (7 3/4 × 6 1/2 in)