ARTS OF INDIA

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AN ILLUSTRATION TO A RAGAMALA SERIES: VIBHASA RAGINI
MEWAR, NORTH INDIA, LATE 17TH CENTURY
Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, the loving couple sits on a
raised bed, he holds a bow covered with fowers and shoots a lotus as an arrow,
a peacock standing on the pavilion’s roof, the sun shining in the background,
three lines of black devanagari text within a yellow cartouche at top, within
black and silver rules with silver-speckled borders
10º x 8in. (26.7 x 20.3cm.)
£2,000-3,000 $2,900-4,300
€2,500-3,700
PROVENANCE:
Acquired before 1991.
The inscription on the reverse translates as : Vibhas [is] somebody [who]
with sleepy eyes, when the night escapes, sits on a bedstead [and] moves in
drunkeness below the beloved having taken a delicate bow made of fowers.
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MAHA SINGH OF CHUNDAWAT RATHORE
KISHANGARH, NORTH INDIA, CIRCA 1770-80
A portrait of Ranjit Singh’s father Maha Singh, opaque pigments heightened
with gold on paper, Maha Singh stands facing left, holding a spear, tulwar and
shield, laid down on gold-speckled card with salmon borders, the reverse with
devanagari identifcation inscription and English pencil notes
Painting 7 Ω x 4in. (19 x 10.2cm.); page 11 Ω x 8 ¿in. (29.4 x 20.7cm.)
£3,000-5,000 $4,300-7,100
€3,800-6,200
PROVENANCE:
Sotheby’s New York, 30th November 1994, lot 360
Maha Singh (1756-1790) led the Sukerchakia Misl in its expansion in west
Punjab, considerably extending its domains. He died in 1790 leaving behind
his son, a very young Ranjit Singh, the later founder of the Sikh empire.
This is folio 31 from this important ragamala series. Although several
paintings of this ragamala appear to have been shown as early as 1957 in
the United Kingdom and 1958 in the United States of America, no picture
from this series is reproduced in Andrew Topsfeld, Court Painting at Udaipur,
Zurich, 2002. Two were published earlier by Topsfeld however, in Paintings
from the Rajput Courts, Indar Pasricha Gallery, London, 1986, nos. 10-11.
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