Kamod Ragini, folio from a <em>Ragamala</em>
date: label: Date
content: ca. 1770-1775
notes: label: School/Tradition
content: Kota school
label: Label
content: The essence of Kamod ragini is viraha, the pain of longing. Kamod is a woman who adorns herself, creates a flower-garland bed in a secluded grove, and waits all night for her lover. A halo on this lotus-eyed heroine suggests that this heroine is Radha, the absent lover is Krishna. But a vivid orange sky, which signals dawn, indicates that Radha has waited all night in vain.
label: Label
content: The folio’s artist employed a composition created in 1591 for the Chunar ragamala, but he played with color and created texture through dash-like strokes, cross-hatching, and translucent layers to heighten the mood. Lush with flowering creepers, textured foliage, and rippling grass, the idyllic bower is abuzz with herons, egrets and peacocks. Radha, painted in saturated hues of opaque paint that has been highly burnished and lavishly adorned with gold, glows in the landscape. She has the egg-shaped head and slim, almost rubbery body that characterizes the beautiful woman in Bundi painting of the eighteenth-century.
label: Provenance
content: From c.1725
label: Provenance
content: Thakur of Dilwara, Akshah Singh, Ajmer [1]
label: Provenance
content: From 1969 to 2001
label: Provenance
content: Ralph Benkaim (1914-2001), purchased from Col. R.K. Tandan (1899-1971), Secunderabad in November 1969 [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] See Ebeling, Klaus. Ragamala Painting. Basel: Ravi Kumar, 1973. No. 212, p. 248.
label: Provenance
content: [2] According to information from Catherin Glynn Benkaim.
label: Collection
content: National Museum of Asian Art Collection
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Thakur of Dilwara, Akshah Singh (active 18th century)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Col. R.K. Tandan (1899-1971)
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: Kota, Rajasthan state, India
topic: label: Topic
content: Radha
label: Topic
content: woman
label: Topic
content: ragamala
label: Topic
content: garden
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: S2018.1.38
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): 18.8 × 12.9 cm (7 3/8 × 5 1/16 in)
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (overall): 32.7 × 23.8 cm (12 7/8 × 9 3/8 in)