Johnson 34,1-35

J.34,1-35

Thirty-five coloured drawings from a ‘ragamala’ series (originally comprising thirty-six), arranged according to Hanuman’s system.

By Udwat Singh and Mohan Singh. Commissioned by Richard Johnson, Lucknow, c.1780-82.

Richard Johnson Collection. Purchased 1807.

Inscribed in Persian with extracts from the ‘Tuhfat al-Hind’ of Mirza Muhammad. The pictures are mounted on album leaves of uniform design consisting of an inner and outer blue border and a middle plain border on which are written the Persian inscriptions; all three borders sprinkled with gold.

Published: Ebeling (1973), 215, no.97;Waldschmidt (1975), 542, no.34.

Note: Udwat Singh and Mohan Singh were evidently commissioned by Johnson to make this series in conjunction with a Persian manuscript of the ‘Tuhfat al-Hind’ composed by Mirza Muhammad ibn Fakhr al-Din Muhammad during Aurangzeb’s reign. A copy of this work, of which Chapter 5 is on music, was in Johnson’s possession (now I.O.R. Pers.Ms 1861, Ethe (1903), no.2012); the copy is on European paper, and appears also to have been written for Johnson. The relevant extracts from this text are written in Persian above each of the ‘ragamala’ illustrations, and in the descriptions beneath, these are referred to with the folio number of the manuscript.

The series follows the system of Hanuman, with certain differences. Ebeling ((1973), 215) points out that it follows an Amber tradition exemplified by a series in the Art Collection, Kankroli (Ebeling (1973) no.46). But there are differences peculiar to the set, notably the variety of treatment of the subject of lone women, and the intrusion of some subjects of the Rajasthani tradition.