Women worshiping a Shiva linga: Devagandhari Ragini of Hindol Raga, from a Ragamala (c. 1700): Art, History and Details
Women worshiping a Shiva linga: Devagandhari Ragini of Hindol Raga, from a Ragamala at the Cleveland Museum of Art: c. 1700, gum tempera and gold on paper. Explore the work's context, creator attribution and collection history.
Women worshiping a Shiva linga: Devagandhari Ragini of Hindol Raga, from a Ragamala (c. 1700) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.
The work and its context
The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:
Removed from any temple setting, the focus of the scene is on the intensity of the women’s devotions to the Hindu god Shiva in his abstract form of a linga. The figure on the right tosses flower petals on the linga and offers incense in a handheld censer. Her taller companion wearing a yellow blouse holds two lotus flowers in her hands cupped in devotion as she bows reverently.
Object facts
- Title: Women worshiping a Shiva linga: Devagandhari Ragini of Hindol Raga, from a Ragamala
- Date: c. 1700
- Culture: Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
- Type: Painting
- Technique: gum tempera and gold on paper
- Dimensions: Overall: 21 x 18.4 cm (8 1/4 x 7 1/4 in.); Painting: 19.7 x 17 cm (7 3/4 x 6 11/16 in.)
- Collection: Indian Art
- Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Accession number: 2018.87
A detail from the museum
The iconography of Devagandhari is consistent in several Ragamala series from Chamba
Collection credit
Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
Further reading listed by the museum
- Griswold, William, Cameron Kitchin, Chase F. Robinson, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cincinnati Art Museum, and National Museum of Asian Art (Smithsonian Institution). Pahari Paintings: Art and Stories, edited by Sonya Rhie Mace, Sarang Sharma, and Vijay Sharma. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2026.
- Cameron, Ainsley M. “Considering Painting from the Pahari Kingdoms through Sight, Sound, Smell and Touch.” Arts of Asia, (Spring 2026): 79-91.
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.
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