AN ILLUSTRATION FROM A RAGAMALA SERIES BILAVAL RAGINI PROVINCIAL MUGHAL, PROBABLY MURSHIDABAD, CIRCA 1760AN ILLUSTRATION FROM A RAGAMALA SERIES: BILAVAL RAGINIPROVINCIAL MUGHAL, PROBABLY MURSHIDABAD, CIRCA 1760Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; verso with a couplet in nastaliq Image: 8 5/8 x 5 7/8 in. (21.9 x 14.9 cm);Folio: 10 3/4 x 7 7/8 in. (27.3 x 20 cm)Meant to be performed in the early hours of the morning, as suggested by the sky's sapphire hue, Vilaval ragini is a musical mode meant to evoke leisure and tranquility. In poetry the raga is described as a lady preparing to meet her lover, and here she is shown gazing at her reflection in a mirror with her arms upstretched. Her superimposition with the conspicuous tree may well be intended to equate her with the ancient Indic motif of a shalabhanjika, or a celestial beauty leaning against the sala tree. Stylistically, the striped saris worn by her attendants, and the thick bands of gold outlining the pavilion's roof and walls, bear close affinity with at least two Ragamala paintings attributed to Murshidabad, c. 1760, in the Indian Office Library (Archer, Indian Miniatures, 1990, p. 474, nos. 368vii & viii).Provenance:Moti Chandra, MumbaiPramod Chandra, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1964-2014American Private CollectionDr. Moti Chandra, the eminent art historian, author, numismatist, and Indologist, was Director of the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India (Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya) for over thirty years. His son, Dr. Pramod Chandra, was Harvard University's George P. Bickford Professor of Indian and South Asian Art for twenty-four years and was described in a tribute in the Harvard Gazette as an "exemplar of the most exacting standards in the scholarship of Indian art history." As well as a beloved professor, Pramod Chandra was a celebrated author and curator, including guest curator of the renowned 1985 exhibition "The Sculpture of India" at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The contributions of both father and son to the appreciation and understanding of Indian art cannot be overstated.