- Title
- Jalandhara Ragaputra, Seventh Son of Megha Raga, Folio from a Ragamala (Garland of Melodies)
- Date Made
- circa 1690
- Medium
- Opaque watercolor, gold, and silver on paper
- Dimensions
- Image: 8 1/4 x 5 7/8 in. (20.95 x 14.92 cm); Sheet: 10 1/4 x 7 7/8 in. (26.03 x 20 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.71.1.29
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
Jalandhara Ragaputra is the seventh son of Megha Raga in the variant ragamala (garland of melodies) classification system known as Meshakarna’s system (developed by Meshakarna, a court priest from Rewa, Madhya Pradesh, in his Ragamala of 1570), which was followed in Pahari ragamalas. Meshakarna’s system has six males (ragas), each of whom who has five or six wives (raginis) and eight or nine sons (ragaputras). The melodies are also compared to a sound in nature or a human activity. Jalandhara Ragaputra is likened to the sound of thunder and envisioned as Krishna lifting up Mount Govardhana. In this and commonly in other Pahari ragamalas, however, the melody is personified as a prince kneeling against a bolster under an awning. He is drinking fervently from a ewer while a maidservant offers him a towel. Another female attendant holds a fly whisk made from the white tail-hairs of a yak (cauri or chowri). The orange background likely indicates it is a daytime melody.
This folio and its series mates M.71.1.49 and M.77.19.31 have a red border and are from a slightly later Bilaspur ragamala than M.82.42.7 and M.83.105.10, which have a yellow border. Four folios from this dispersed series are in the Baroda Museum and Picture Gallery (174–176). A comparable Bilaspur Jalandhara Ragaputra attributed to circa 1740-1750 is in the National Museum of Asian Art, Washington (S2018.1.4).
- Selected Bibliography
- Rosenfield, John. The Arts of India and Nepal: The Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1966.
