Todi Ragini, from a Ragamala Series (c. 1750–75): Art, History and Details

Todi Ragini, from a Ragamala Series (c. 1750–75) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

In the ragamala system, male ragas are "married" to female raginis. Todi Ragini is a "wife" of Hindola Raga, the name of a scene that features the male lover or lovers on a swing. Both Todi and Hindola are meant to explore the moods of springtime. Ragamala verses describe Todi as a woman with sharp eyes and a slim "extremely tender body, radiant as the frost" and smeared with saffron and camphor from Kashmir. She is said to "push back a deer from the edge of a forest glade."

Object facts

• Title: Todi Ragini, from a Ragamala Series
• Date: c. 1750–75
• Culture: Northwestern India, Rajasthan, Bundi or Uniara, 18th century
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Image: 21.4 x 13 cm (8 7/16 x 5 1/8 in.); Border: 28.7 x 22.3 cm (11 5/16 x 8 3/4 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2012.297

Collection credit

Gift of Dr. Norman Zaworski

Further reading listed by the museum

• “Art of Asia Acquired by North American Museums, 2011-2012.” Archives of Asian Art, vol. 63, no. 2, 2013, pp. 215–276.

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.