A Garland of Melodies

This article is about understanding and reimagining a special category of miniature painting called ‘Ragamala’ painting. It is a special genre of Indian painting. It is the pictorial representation of an Indian musical mode or melody which is called a ‘raga’. The Indian ‘ragas’ as musical modes convey a certain ‘bhava’, an emotion or mood. This has been visualised in Ragamala paintings which translates as ’garland of ragas’ or a string of musical modes or melodies. The Indian Schools of painting have produced several paintings sets of the ragas; including ‘raginis’ which are supposed to be the wives/females of the Indian male ragas. The paintings are varied and represent the mood it is supposed to depict as per the raga or ragini and are thus a symphony of colour and sound. Tracing the history of this category of painting from India the many examples in this article from the collection of the Salar Jung Museum, Hyderabad, will make it easier to reimagine, rediscover, recognize and fully appreciate aspects of this fascinating genre of Indian painting

Art · Literature · Melody · Musical · Painting · Visual arts · Architecture and Cultural Influences · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Psychology · Walter Benjamin Studies Compilation