Shri Raga, from a Ragamala (Garland of Melodies) (1695): Art, History and Details

Shri Raga, from a Ragamala (Garland of Melodies) (1695) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Sharing a bottle of wine, the royal couple enjoy the performance of a musician playing a vina and the horse-headed divinity Tumbaru on the cymbals. Tumbaru is a divinity who has the power to increase the prosperity of the realm. This page is from a series that was made on the occasion of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights.

Object facts

• Title: Shri Raga, from a Ragamala (Garland of Melodies)
• Date: 1695
• Culture: Northwestern India, Rajasthan, Rajput Kingdom of Bikaner
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Page: 27 x 18.4 cm (10 5/8 x 7 1/4 in.); Miniature: 15 x 10 cm (5 7/8 x 3 15/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2018.193

A detail from the museum

The ideal king in this scene is a likeness of the current ruler, Anup Singh (r. 1638–93).

Collection credit

Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.