- Title
- Kamala Ragaputra, First Son of Dipak Raga, Folio from a Ragamala (Garland of Melodies)
- Date Made
- circa 1690
- Medium
- Opaque watercolor, gold, and silver on paper
- Dimensions
- Image: 8 x 5 3/4 in. (20.32 x 14.6 cm); Sheet: 10 x 7 1/2 in. (25.4 x 19.05 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.71.1.49
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
Kamala Ragaputra is the first son of Dipak 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. Kamala Ragaputra is likened to the sound of a frog. Its imagery typically features a hero with lotuses (kamala). Here, the melody is envisioned as a princely man standing on the edge of a lush lotus pond and holding two lotus blossoms.
This folio and its series mates M.71.1.29 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).
- Selected Bibliography
- Rosenfield, John. The Arts of India and Nepal: The Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1966.
