AN ILLUSTRATION TO A RAGAMALA SERIES: THE GUJARI RAGINI
PROPERTY FROM THE LATE PETER COCHRANE (1913 - 2004) COLLECTION
Marwar, Rajasthan, North-Western India, 17th - 18th century

Opaque pigments and ink on paper, the vertical composition illustrating a scene associated with the Gujari Ragini, the first wife of the Megha Raga, a morning melody played during the Monsoon season representing the sorrow of lovers' separation, the scene portraying an Indian maiden seated under a colorful palanquin, holding a tambura and looking ahead at an empty courtyard emphasising her solitude and loneliness, a female attendant standing behind her whisking a white handkerchief, three white herons or cranes perched on the verdant tree on the right, three lines of black ink Devanagari script at the top of the scene, mounted, glazed and framed, the illustration 26.2cm x 20.3cm, 46.5cm x 38cm including the frame.

A comparable example to the present lot in terms of subject, pictorial school and style is the 17th-century Madhumadhavai Ragini illustration from a dispersed Marwar Ragamala series in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no. 55.121.27).