- Title
- Todi Ragini, Second Wife of Hindola Raga, Folio from a Ragamala (Garland of Melodies)
- Date Made
- circa 1675
- Medium
- Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper
- Dimensions
- 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)
- Accession Number
- AC1999.127.11
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
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.
