Page 110 - Indian, Himalaya and Asian Art Bonhams Setp 2015

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AN ILLUSTRATION FROM A RAGAMALA SERIES: MALAVI RAGINI
Attributed to Ruknuddin, Bikaner, 1694
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; under swelling clouds, the entwined royal couple
wander towards the prepared bedchamber; verso with various single-line inscriptions and
collection stamps.
Image: 6 x 4 5/8 in. (15.2 x 11.8 cm); Folio: 10 1/4 x 7 5/8 in. (26 x 19.4 cm)
$8,000 - 12,000
The Malavi Ragini is evoked in a verse by the poet Narada:
“The fair-hipped one has kissed his lotus-face. His brightness is as the parrot’s...At eventide,
intoxicated, he enters the house of the tryst with a garland in his hand. [He is] the Malava Raga King.”
Another page from this series, with faint gilt floral decoration in the salmon border, is in the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (see Cummins, Indian Painting, Boston, 2006, 146, plate 80).
Both of these pages have the same format of inscriptions.
As noted by Cummins, “There are two inscriptions on the reverse, one identifying the artist,
and another (in a different hand) identifying the subject and date. The date is probably more
reliable than the artist attribution, which may have been added later by a state librarian.
There were many artists working under Ruknuddin by the late 17th century, some emulating
his style, others working in very distinct modes. Even if this painting cannot be accepted as
the work of the master, it at least reflects his personal style far more than many other Bikaner
paintings.” (ibid., p. 229.)
Compare with a ragamala page attributed to Ruknuddin possibly from the same set,
bearing the same size, margins, and similar border decoration, held in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art (Kossak, Indian Court Paintings , New York, 1997, 65, no. 33). Also see
Sotheby’s, London, 20 November 1986, lots 132-7, and Ebeling, Ragamala Paintings,
Basel, 1973, pp. 50-1 & 240, cat. no. 184.
Provenance
The Maharaja of Bikaner
Colnaghi Oriental, London, before 1980
Collection of Dr and Mrs Robert Dickes, 1980-2013
Thence by descent

108 | BONHAMS