An Early Rāgamālā Series

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An Early Rāgamālā SeriesAuthor(s): Anand KrishnaSource: Ars Orientalis, Vol. 4 (1961), pp. 368-372Published by: Freer Gallery of Art, The Smithsonian Institution and Department of the Historyof Art, University of MichiganStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4629150 .

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368 NOTES

Sha'ban in 778/I377, since after that Muisa was in partial disgrace. He appears already as ustaddr and ha-jib in 762,28 although he seems to have lost the former office, at least for a short while, in 763. It would be to a period when Muasa was only hadjib that we would have to attribute the box, but the texts are insufficient to determine the date. All one can say is that it was made during a period extending from some time before 762 to 778. It is a period from which a great number of objects have remained 29 and the box described here is quite typical of the time. Its main interest is in reviving the memory of one of the thousands of amirs who were at the same time the main support and the source of decay of the Mamliik state, whose individual historical importance was secondary, but whose proces- sions through the streets of Cairo preceded by drummers and followed by slaves (future amirs) carrying symbols of office, such as per- haps this box, were an everyday occurrence and, next to mosques and mausoleums, one of the most characteristic forms of "conspicuous consumption" in their fast and often pre- carious lives.

OLEG GRABAR

AN EARLY RAGAMALA SERIES

Recently Bharat Kala Bhavan, the Mu- seum of Fine Art, Banaras, India, acquired a complete set of Ragamala paintings of such unusual character that they throw a new light on the problem of the origin of the Rajasthani painting.

The origin of the Rajasthani school of paintings is a very controversial subject. Al-

28 Maqrizl, loc. cit., calls him amYr hadib, while Taghribirdi uses the title of ustaddr.

29 Wiet, Cuivres, p. I95ff., lists over I50 pieces of metalwork datable between 730 and 780; see also Rice, SIMW-I and IV.

though most scholars feel that the school ex- isted in the pre-Akbar period and though recently some definite examples have been found to prove it, Karl J. Khandalavala argues for a much later date (ca. A.D. i6io or a little later). He bases his argument on the "Akbari elements" found in the early Rajasthani paintings, which, according to him, reached the out- of-the-way centers of Rajasthan not much before the end of the fifteenth century. I have already published a pre-Akbari manuscript of the Rajasthani style in the Marg.1 The present note is meant to present to the scholarly world other evidence to show the existence of the Rajasthani style as an art movement independent of the Akbari style.2

The manuscript is still in the traditional Indian horizontal format; each folio measures 4.5 inches by 9.5 inches. Sanskrit text describ- ing each painting in a couplet appears at the top of each folio. The following is a list 3 of the illustrations: FOLIO FOLIO

i Bhairava Rdga I9 Dipaka Rdga 2 Nada Bhairavi 20 Dhanyasri 3 Nata 2I Vasanta 4 Gauri 22 Karnata 5 Patamafijari 23 Desi Varadi 6 Lalita 24 Varat; 7 Malavakaus'ika 25 Megha Raga 8 Todi 26 Gaudi 9 Khambhavati 27 Vibhasa

io Malava 28 MAlasri ii Ramakari 29 gri Raga 12 Gunakari 30 Gurjari 13 Hindola 31 Malhara 14 Bilavala 32 Saranga I5 Madhumddhavi 33 Kakubha i6 Desakha 34 Kamoda I7 Gandhara 35 Asavari i8 Andhiri (sic) 36 Bangala

Unfortunately, no colophon appears and the task of assigning a date and a provenance

'Marg, vol. ii, No. 2 (March I958). 2 Accession No. 9070/I036. 3 Each presiding Raga is italicized in the list.



NOTES 369

is left to us. However, the manuscript shows many early characteristics which help us to set a date for it. The format of the manuscript belongs to the traditional Indian type which was no longer used for Ragamala paintings after about A.D. i 6o0. The horizontal format, on the the other hand, afforded the artist side spaces which he usually filled with architectural pieces or trees, scenes originally appear- ing in some square manuscript illustrations painted during the preceding centuries. Other regional qualities might suggest close affinities with the early Gujarati illustrations.4

The human figures, with their hooked noses, double chins, elongated earlobes, and, in the male figures, the curved chest, resemble the earlier types of figures seen in manuscript illustrations. The female breasts, in the same tradition, are full and in the form of complete circles. The male figures are either clean shaven or wear an early type of hooked mous- tache. The complexion of the human figures is yellow or brown or sometimes, in special cases, lapis lazuli. Big staring eyes vouch for their Rajasthani type, as do the strict profile faces and the absence of the "farther-eye." There are no delicate hand postures and long sensitive fingers as are shown in the earlier periods; fingers and hands are crudely shown.

Usually the drapery is shown by red out- lines. The turbans are flat, resembling an earlier type,5 rather than the Akbari atpati. Simi-

4See my above-cited article for an undated illustrated manuscript of Sangrahani Suitra; in the same volume of Marg Pramod Chandra published another illustrated manuscript of Sangrahani Sfitra, dated A.D. 1583; see also K. J. Khandalavala, Marg, vol. 4, No. 3 (I950), pl. 8, for a Gujarati manuscript of Bhagavata Dasamaskandha of A.D. i6io with captions in the Gujarati dialect; and see Majmudar, JISOA, vol. I0, pI. I, fig. 2, and ibid., pl. i, fig. i, for comparison of style.

6 Cf. Rai Krishnadasa, Lalit Kala, vol. i, for comparison with the pre-Akbari illustrations of a Lor Chanda manuscript having exactly the same type of turban.

larly, pre-Akbari taste may be seen in the coats with half-sleeves, the tight pyjamas, and the rarely used jamdhs. The pointed crown may illustrate the Gujarati type, popularly used in the illustrations from the Gujarat region. The 4upattd (scarf) is very broad edged and is shown fluttering at the sides. Pre-Akbari motifs, mostly geometrical in form, appear in red lines; e.g., crosses, dots, primitive meanders, hatches, and four-petaled rosettes are commonly used in both the male and female costumes. Some of these motifs are unknown after about A.D. i58o.

The female figures wear a veil (odhni), following an early tradition, the wimple being placed at the extreme rear of the head, its ends fluttering at the sides, while the chest is left bare. Similarly, the size of the earring (kar- naphila) may indicate a date not later than about A.D. i56o. The nose ring, very common after about A.D. i 6oo, absolutely does not appear.

The architecture is simple, usually drawn in yellow, with slender pillars covered with several mediaeval Indian diamond motifs; Akbari heavy columns, so popular in subse- quent examples, are completely missing. The earlier type of brackets and wide arches appear. Geometrical frieze motifs, e.g., chevrons, diamonds, parallelograms, hatches, or, sometimes, early scrolls, may indicate a pre-Akbari tradition. Similar evidence is provided by the early flattened domes and battlements.6 Some- times elaborate and decadent survivals of the ancient Indian chaitya arch window motif appear.

Usually the background is plain and mono- chrome, the color of the paper, broken by certain queer and primitive tree types, e.g., (a) a solid oval of green, supported by a crooked

6 They are commonly used in the earlier manuscript illustrations; cf. Dr. Moti Chandra, Jain minia- ture paintings in western India, figs. I81 (dated A.D.

I433), I93, etc.



370 NOTES

and pruned trunk, (b) a tree type with ex- tended, denuded, black branches, or the same type with red branches, having three-petaled blossoms ( ?) at the end, (c) a tree with swaying, delicate branches and globular red fruits ( ?), (d) the plantain tree, the only identifiable one in the group, closely resembling similar representations in the A.D. I439 Kalpa Suitra manuscript in the collection of the Na- tional Museum of India, New Delhi, and in the tile work on Man Tomar's palace, Gwa- lior, India, datable ca. A.D. Io00, (e) a bold blossomed plant, made up of a floral design showing similarities to those in earlier manuscript illustrations, and so on.

The conventionalized, variegated, and col- orful conical rocks, sometimes with curved peaks, may show a relation to the earlier group of Rajasthani examples dated about A.D. I540.7 The lotus pond, at the bottom of certain illustrations, shows an extremely primitive treatment, with blue placid water and a few doll-like, darting fish.

Sometimes the sky is represented by a semicircular broad wash of blue; in one example semicircular stripes of different colors appear. Elsewhere a curtainlike object hangs at the top and corners of the painting. Very similar representations of sky appear in a few Shah-nameh pages in the same collection, which Dr. Richard Ettinghausen has attributed to some Indian Sultanate Courts of the fifteenth century (figs. 37-39).

The palette is limited to dull and raw yellow, crimson, lapis lazuli, malachite-green, black, and other such primary colors.

Certain other characteristics may reinforce the claim for an early date for the illustrations, e.g., the broad, straight Indian daggers, the small round shields, the vina (lute) of an early type, the early form of the bouquet held by Ragini Kakubha, the decorative and doll-like

7 Anand Krishna, op. cit.

representations of a tiger (fig. 30) and pea- cocks (fig. 28), and so on. The treatment of snakes, with their broad, conical, hooded faces and their bodies filled on the inner side shown with a crisscross (mat) pattern connects these examples with the earlier tradition which dies out during the Akbar period; the absence of Akbari influence, on the other hand, may suggest a date before the Grand Mughal re- established the imperial order in Gujarat (A.D.

I572).

Another Ragamala series similar to the one under discussion belongs to Shri Sarabhai Nawab's collection,8 Ahmadabad (India); however, when Nawab permitted his collection to be studied, this manuscript was not available to me and thus I am confined to the published information. This fragmentary series now consists of its nine folios, viz, folios 6-9, II, 25, 29, 31, 32, which measure 9.3 inches by 4.I inches in horizontal size, illus- trating Dakhini Guijarl, Malakausa, Dhanyasi, Khambhavati, Ramakali, Natanarayana, Asa, Sindhu, Meghamalara, respectively. This Rag- amala series has many features in common with the Kala Bhavan set, with strikingly similar angular profile faces, costume, and drapery. Yet the Nawab examples may show a tendency toward simplification in line and color while eliminating details in architecture and landscape; they would therefore represent the more or less popular nature of these minia- tures which seem to have been derived from some earlier prototype. The Kala Bhavan examples might belong to this same early style group, assignable to ca. A.D. I575 in date.

The following group of manuscript illustrations shows similarities to the Kala Bhavan Ragamala series and therefore helps us in dating this series:

(a) The undated manuscript of Sangra- 8 Cf. Khandalavala in Marg, vol. 4, No. 3 (I 950),

fig. 8, and S. M. Nawab, Masterpieces of Kalpasutra paintings, Ahmadabad, I956, 8ff. and figures.



U'

~~~ -FfI ItIt- *

FIG. 1.-Bhairava Raga. FIG. 2.-NADA BHAIRAVI.

FIG. 3.-NATA. FIG. 4.-GAURY.



FIG. 5.- PATAMAN-JARI. FIG. 6.-LALITA.

FIG. 7.- Malavakaulika. FIG. 8.- Todl.



9'~ ~ ~ ~~~~~I ''pn^v??,, "t{ i.

FIG. 9.-Khambhavati. FIG. 1O.-M&ava.a

TiS W i~4B*(Rl,g

FIG. 11.-Ramnakari. FIG. 12.-Glz4akri .

cs



FIG. 13.--Hin&dola. FIG. 14.-BILARVALA.

FIG. 15.-MADHUMADHAVI. FIG. 16.-DEsA,KHA.



`4~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~7 14~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~2

4-20. 71."~- NYMm - -

'~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FIG. 17.-GANDHARA. FIG. 18.- ANDHIRI (sic.).

FIG. 19.-D;paka Raga. FIG. 20.-DHANYASRI.

.al-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

OUS4~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~U



FIG. 21. VASANTA. FIG. 22.-YKARNATA.

4Li %" '4InLj s &

FIG. 23.-D:ESI VARXD!. FIG. 24.-VARATI.



!S~~~~J

FIG. 25.-Migha Raga. FIG. 26.-GAUDY.

X *S;X tz I I t|Wltmz?}f;:SAezlts I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I Iwj

FIG. 27.-VIBHASA. FIG. 28.-MALAS?RL.



FIG. 29.-SRI RIGA. FIG. 30.-GURJARI.

FIG. 31.-Malhkra. FIG. 32.-SARANGA.



OS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~C

z

FIG. 33.-KAKUBHA. FIG. 34.-KAMODA.

e~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ S

FIG. 35.-ASAVARI. FIG. 36. -BANGALA. r



KRISHNA PLATE 10

FIG. 37.

FIG. 38.

FIG. 39.

FIGS. 37-39.-SHAH-NAMEH, SULTANATE PERIOD.



KRISHINA PLATE 11

FIG. 40.

FIG. 42.

FIG. 41. FIG. 43.

FIGS. 40-43. MADANA KUMARA-RATI SUJNDARI KATHA.

Sbni Gopi Krishna Kanoria Collection.



NOTES 37I

hani Sitra, which in many respects resembles the Ragamala series and already suggested by me as an example from the pre-Akbar Gujarat.9

(b) The undated Madana Kumara-Rati Sundari Katha illustrated manuscript, a recent acquisition in the collection of Shri Gopi Krishna Kanoria of Calcutta (published here for the first time, figs. 40-43), again yields no trace of the Akbari influence and although it is not as early in date as the above-cited Sangra- hani Suitra manuscript, it cannot be as late as ca. A.D. I576, the date of another illustrated manuscript (infra, c).

Madana Kumara-Rati Sundari Katha manuscript illustrations, on the other hand, show no traces of Akbari costume or architecture, but on the other hand show definite pre-Akbari motifs.

(c) An illustrated manuscript of Pars- vanatha Vivahalu in the collection of the Mu- seum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts,10 datable ca. A.D. I576,11 is another important piece of evidence to help us in dating the Kala Bhavan Ragamala series. Although a few illustrations in the Parsvanatha manuscript show faces having the "farther-eye," yet at least in one case (fol. iB) two strict profile faces of the Rajasthani type appear. These examples in their facial and eye types are too close to be much removed in date from the Kala Bhavan Ragamala examples.

The Sangrahani Suitra 12 illustrations of A.D. I583 show a great progress in the same style group, by means of balanced and evolved

9 Anand Krishna, op. cit. 10 Accession No. I 7.2280: ref. Ananda Coomaras-

wamy, A catalogue of the Indian collections in the Museum of Fine Jrts, Boston, vol. 2, p. 66, described as the Ratan Sara.

" The book has two MSS. written in the same hand. The first MS. has a few illustrations, but it is undated. However, the second, unillustrated, MS. follows the first and is dated A.D. I576. Presumably both the MSS. were written at one time.

12 Pramod Chandra, Marg, vol. i i, No. 2 ( 958).

compositions, faces showing less angularity and comparatively smaller eyes, and above all a few jama.h types, derived from the Akbari pointed (chakdar) variety or the characteristic flat (atpati) turban. The same inferences can be drawn from an illustrated manuscript of Uttaradhyayana Suatra dated A.D. 159I.13

(e) The Gitagovinda series in the late N.C. Mehta's collection 14 is another landmark in the history of this provincial art style. Rai Krishnadasa informs me that a dated Bhaga- vata Dasamakhandha illustrated manuscript (unfortunately still unpublished) in the palace collection of Jaipur (Rajasthan State, India) dated A.D. I598, is very similar in style and several other characteristics to the above- mentioned Gitagovinda series and thus a date for ca. A.D. i 6oo can be suggested for the latter.

Now a closer comparison between the Mehta Gitagovinda illustrations and the Kala Bhavan Ragamala series may suggest an earlier date for the latter.

In the Gitagovinda illustrations the facial types are more sophisticated, the scenes are more tightly composed, showing a compactness and correlation among the figures. Not only do the costumes and the ornaments lose their primitiveness and the earlier types of motifs disappear, but they also show a definite Akbari impact, which is conspicuously absent in the Kala Bhavan Ragamala series. Similarly the lack of ornateness in the architectural types of the Gitagovinda illustrations does not fail to impress upon the student the gradual loss of such Hindu traditions which were simplified or given up by the Akbari architects. The tree types, with their elaborate andl swaying branches in the Gitagovinda examples are surely an evolution from the primitive and

13 W. N. Brown, Manuscript illustrations of the Uttaradhyan Sutra, described as MS. JP and plates.

14 Karl J. Khandalavala, Marg, vol. 4, No. 3 fig. I0.



372 NOTES

stunted trees of the Ragamala series and this process of evolution easily presupposes a con- siderable time.

Thus the conspicuous dissimilarity between these two series of illustrations cited above leaves us no doubt about an earlier date than ca. A.D. i6oo for the Kala Bhavan Ragamala series. In any case, the Ragamala should be earlier than A.D. I583, the date of the above- mentioned Sangrahani Suitra. Therefore, a date ca. A.D. I575 may be justifiable.

Thus the Ragamala series presents a true early stage of the Rajasthani paintings, in primitive form, showing some definite characteristics to prove its existence during the sixteenth century. These manuscript illustrations leave no doubt about its pre-Akbari period and its independent origin, and thus help to settle the controversy.

ANAND KRISHNA

"THE SIX LAWS AND HOW TO READ THEM"

Special interest has been aroused by Acker's new rendering of the famous Six Laws of Hsieh Ho.' Since acceptance of his interpretation would force us to regard all previous renderings as more or less obsolete, and since this interpretation appears to be receiving such acceptance from many people concerned with Chinese art, it requires some careful consid- eration. The Six Laws have been translated and discussed by numerous other writers; the first two were treated at length by Alexander Soper.2 Soper's exposition still seems to me

1 Acker, W. B., Some T'ang and Pre-Tang texts on Chinese painting. See p. 4 for text and transl. of the Six Laws, which appear in the introductory remarks to Hsieh's Ku hua-p'in lu (late fifth century); and Introduction, pp. XIV-XLIII, for Acker's discussion of them.

2 The First Two Laws of Hsieh Ho, Far Eastern Quarterly, vol. 8 (1949), pp. 4I2-423.

generally the soundest of all that have ap- peared to date, and I shall depend on it some- what in the following discussion.

Hsieh Ho, after announcing that "painting has Six Laws," asks: "What are these Six Laws ?" and himself provides the answer (nec- essarily, since they are his own invention 8), presenting them in order. The form of his presentation, as it has customarily been con- strued, is as follows (taking the first law as example): i, ch'i-yiin sheng-tung shih yeh -Ai,tM&,. Adapting Soper's transla- tion to the order of the Chinese sentence, this law could be rendered (awkwardly) as: "The first, 'animation through spirit consonance' is this." Chang Yen-yuan, quoting the laws in Li-tai MHC, simplified Hsieh's construction to the form: i yiieh ch'i-yuin sheng-tung -El ANIt , or, "The first is called 'animation through spirit consonance.'" However pre- sented, the Six Laws have been taken as four- character phrases by Chinese, Japanese, and Occidental scholars ever since.

Acker believes that all these scholars, be- ginning with Chang Yen-yuan, have been in error, and that each of the Six Laws consists, properly speaking, of a single two-character compound, with a second compound or two- character phrase following it and explaining or defining it. He punctuates the first law, for example: "i: ch'i yiin; sheng tung shih yeh," and translates, "First, Spirit Resonance which means vitality" (pp. XXIII, 4). The other five he renders in similar form. The words shih yeh are thus understood as equating the law and its definition, and the numerals preceding each law as belonging properly only to the law itself, which comprises only the first two characters of the four. Acker quotes the

8 I do not find very convincing Acker's suggestion that Hsieh Ho may have been quoting the laws from an earlier source; there is no real reason to suppose that they were other than original with him.



An Early Rāgamālā Series

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