Perhaps once graced with a figural sculpture such as in M.75.80a-b, this cylindrical base presents the key iconographic elements of the musical melody Kakubha Ragini in a monoscenic narrative carved in low relief around the base. Here, a fan-tailed peacock displays his circular train of tail feathers in rapt response to a heroine playing the vina. She is seated on a palace veranda and accompanied by two attendants, one holding a flower and the other what may be a peacock feather flywhisk or a flower wand.
India’s personified musical melodies, called Ragas and Raginis, represent a polymorphic form of artistic creativity unique in the history of world culture. Encompassing both the fine arts and the performing arts, they combine music, poetry, and painting in specific correlations. The music consists of improvised compositions, their notes arranged in a certain structure or sequence in order to create a particular emotional ambiance. Musical Ragas and Raginis are historically much earlier than the other two components of the art form and are by far the most widely practiced in modern times. The poetic verses describe the appearance, personalities, and, especially, the interpersonal relationships among the personified melodies. Paintings portraying the musical melodies exhibit a complex, variable iconography differentiated by regional traditions. The paintings were originally mounted in albums usually containing thirty-six or forty-two folios organized in a system of "families."