Johnson 42,1-36

J.42,1-36

Thirty-six pictures comprising a ‘ragamala’ series, arranged according to Hanuman’s system.

Commissioned by Richard Johnson, Lucknow, c.1780-82.

Richard Johnson Collection. Purchased 1807.

Each picture inscribed in Persian with extracts from the’ Risalah-i ragamala’ of Thakur Das.

Drawings with colouring and occasional use of gold; some drawings coloured only in brown; inner and outer border of blue enclosing a cream surround; sprinkled with gold.

Page 325 by 220 mm.

Published: Ebeling (1973), 215, no.98; Waldschmidt (1975), 542, no.35.

Note: This series was originally bound in red Indian leather with Johnson’s bookplate (his arms above his titles in Persian and the date AH1194/AD1780), and it seems that Johnson commissioned the painting of the series to illustrate the ‘Risalah-i ragamala,’ a Persian work by Thakur Das of which a copy was in Johnson’s possession (now I.O.R. Pers.Ms.1739, Ethe (1903), no.2018. The relevant extracts from this work are copied onto the border of each painting in the series. Four artists were employed on the series: Ghulam Reza, Gobind Singh, Udwat Singh and Mohan Singh. Ghulam Reza, who undertook fourteen of the pictures including all six ‘raga’ subjects, is the superior artist of the four. Of the others, seventeen are by Gobind Singh, three by Udwat Singh and two by Mohan Singh. These last two were also employed on Album 34 which has the same format with the inscriptions written in the same hand on the borders. Each picture has the attribution to the artist written in Persian in the lower left border.