On loan to The Met The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Ramakali Ragini: A Woman Offering Milk to a Snake
Not on view
This folio from a Ragamala (‘Garland of Raga’) series depicts an ancient theme in Indian culture, the accommodation of snakes. The worship of deified snakes (nagas and naginis) is amongst the oldest form of religious worship recorded in India. Snakes are also imbued with erotic symbolism and hence the theme of this ragamala, in which a beautiful woman awaits the arrival of her lover. Richly attired, she sits beneath of slender flowering tree on a woven rug and rests on a green bolster. From an adjacent tree a serpentine cobra unwinds itself from the trunk reaching out to drink milk from stem-cup held aloft by the woman. As the tryst is set to happen in a forested landscape that is the snake’s abode, extending such courtesies to the host is in keeping with maintaining the harmony of nature. The gesture also foretells the lover’s arrival.
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