Todi Ragini, Second Wife of Hindola Raga, Folio from a Ragamala (Garland of Melodies)

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Todi Ragini, Second Wife of Hindola Raga, Folio from a Ragamala (Garland of Melodies)

India, Maharashtra, Aurangabad, circa 1675
Drawings; watercolors
Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper
Sheet: 15 x 9 3/4 in. (38.1 x 24.77 cm); Image: 10 1/2 x 7 1/2 in. (26.67 x 19.05 cm)
Gift of Jane Greenough Green in memory of Edward Pelton Green (AC1999.127.11)
Not currently on public view

Curator Notes

Todi Ragini is the second wife of Hindola Raga in the Rajasthani system of Ragamala classification....
Todi Ragini is the second wife of Hindola Raga in the Rajasthani system of Ragamala classification. Todi Ragini may have originated as a tune sung by village girls who guarded the fields from foraging deer. The song was believed to mesmerize the deer. It is a tender early morning melody associated with winter. In Ragamala poetry, Todi Ragini is described as a lovesick woman who walks alone through green groves and sings to the deer. In Ragamala painting, Todi Ragini is usually depicted as a woman carrying a vina and walking with deer and/or gazelles. Although she is usually shown as a solitary figure, she is occasionally shown accompanied by two female companions. Here, Todi Ragini is imagined as a woman carrying a rudra vina (a stick zither with two resonator gourds) and a pair of hand cymbals. She has two female companions. One holds the leash of a gazelle and hold her hand near her mouth, perhaps indicating that she is singing. The second waves a flywhisk and holds the untethered lead to another gazelle. The setting is a lush forest with a river running along the bottom. Poetic verses describing Todi Ragini are inscribed in the header. See also M.71.1.42, M.77.130.1, M.77.154.6, and M.2004.180.
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