"Madhava Ragaputra, Son of Bhairava Raga: A Young Prince Seated on a Throne, Gazing in a Mirror," Folio from a dispersed Ragamala (Garland of Melodies)

A young prince, wearing a garland of flowers and a scarf wrapped around his uplifted
knees as a meditation belt, is seated on a low, plainly decorated throne. He is resting against a
bolster, with one hand raised to his face in a gesture of astonishment and the other hand
holding a small, round mirror which reflects his handsome features. The young prince is
dressed in red, the color of passion, and attended by a standing maid holding two signifying
emblems: the royal fly whisk, or chauri, and a neatly folded handkerchief. This unusual scene
of self examination and formal enthronement takes place in a forest clearing, edged by a circle
of trees sheltering an assortment of twittering birds.
The iconography of this painting follows the Kshemenkarna system of classification of
ragamala paintings, which required some 84 illustrations in a series, and was widely used in the
Punjab Hills. In the lowlands of northern India ragamala series were also very popular, but in
this different region they were organized according to the so­called Painter’s or Hanuman’s
system of classification, requiring either 36 or 42 ragamala illustrations in a series. (See cat.
nos. __­__.) Kshemenkarna’s system was different. The man was a scholar and musician,
living in the kingdom of Rewa in Central India in the sixteenth century. His great work of
classification, Ragamala, was written around the year 1570. Why this more detailed system of
classification became so popular in the Punjab Hills is unknown.
The iconography required by the depiction of this ragaputra, the son of Bhairava raga
(see cat. no. 7), focuses on the ragaputra’s good looks. Wearing beautiful garments and
exquisite jewelry, this ragaputra, Madhava, is more handsome than Kamadeva, the god of love.
Like all ragamala subjects classified according to Kshemenkarna’s system, the pictorial subject
depicted here can change from series to series. As a painting to enjoy, the actual subject
depicted in any folio is more important than the often quite different poem or melodic theme with
which Kshemenkarna associates it.
For three other paintings from the same ragamala series, see cat. nos. 56, 58, and 59.
See also Catherine Glynn, Robert Skelton, and Anna Dallapiccola 2011, nos, 7­9 for three
published illustrations from the same Series. For ragamala painting, see cat. no. 7.

Inscription: Inscribed on the reverse with three short lines written in devanagari, takri, and takri / sharada script: “Raga Madhava Son of Bhero”; also inscribed in pencil with the numbers “11167” and “87” and in black ink with the Indic number “87”; notated with a rubber stamp in purple ink enclosing the Indic number “2513”

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