"Ragini Sindhuri, Wife of Hindol Raga: A Lady Seated Beside a Lotus Pond in Which Her Two Naked Confidantes are Swimming," Folio from a dispersed Ragamala (Garland of Melodies)

Two naked ladies, using empty earthen vessels as flotation pillows, are frolicing in a
lotus pool filled to the brim with swirling water. (This use of empty vessels as flotation pillows is
an ancient Indian practice.) Their discarded clothing overflows a basket perched on the
perimeter of the pool. A pensive princess is seated beside their basket. She is leaning on a
diaphanous handkerchief while examining a lonely, plucked flower, symbolic of her absent lover.
Three sinuous trees, etched against a deep yellow background, fill the extremely shallow
foreground space.
The melody with which this ragini is associated is meant to evoke the music popular with
the inhabitants of Sindh. (1)
Like many other subjects of ragamala painting, the subject of this picture can vary from
series to series. (A given raga is not necessarily represented by a male figure, nor a ragini by a
female figure.) The composition must be read in its entirety. The dramatic situation, or import,
of a picture, whatever it might be, is all important. It will express the underlying sentiment and
mood of the music, yet not necessarily the specific and highly detailed subject matter of the
accompanying poem, which is secondary to its meaning.
For three other paintings from the same fine series see cat. nos. 56­58. See also
Catherine Glynn, Robert Skelton, and Anna Dallapiccola 20ll, nos 7­9, for three published
illustrations from the same series. For ragamala painting, see cat. no. 7.
(1) R.K. Tandan, Pahari Ragamalas (Bangalore: Natesan Publishers, 1983), pg. 45

Inscription: Inscribed on the reverse with three short lines written in devanagari, takri, and takri/sharada
script: “Ragini Sindhuri”. Also inscribed in pencil with the numbers 65 and 11082 and in black ink with the Indic number 65. Also inscribed with a rubber stamp in purple ink enclosing the Indic number 2491.

This series came from a bound volume in a German collection. Sothebys?

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Divine Pleasures: Painting from India's Rajput Courts—The Kronos Collections," June 13–September 11, 2016.