Todi Ragini, from a Ragamala Series
Unknown Artist
c. 1750–75
Medium
Gum tempera and gold on paper
Dimensions
image: 21.4 × 13 cm · border: 28.7 × 22.3 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Dr. Norman Zaworski
Accession Number
2012.297
About this artwork
In the ragamala system, male ragas are "married" to female raginis. Todi Ragini is a "wife" of Hindola Raga, the name of a scene that features the male lover or lovers on a swing. Both Todi and Hindola are meant to explore the moods of springtime. Ragamala verses describe Todi as a woman with sharp eyes and a slim "extremely tender body, radiant as the frost" and smeared with saffron and camphor from Kashmir. She is said to "push back a deer from the edge of a forest glade."