Topic: Raginis

[Nichi]

Gauri Ragini

[Nichi]

Vasant Ragini

[Nichi]

I get confused here ... a "ragini" actually is an illustrated raga...


Ragini Sehuti

This strange vision, a young lady caressing like a circus ring-master two lions flanking her on either side and the dreadful beasts children-like responding to her gesture with a smile on their faces, is a Ragamala folio representing Ragini Seehuti. As is its essence, a Ragamala painting seeks to personify the visual aspect of a Raga or Ragini which is broadly a concept of mind, or an abstract system, discipline or mode, to which a musical expression is subjected. This two-fold dimension is actually the inherent character of Indian music which – initially a component of drama and thus a tool of narration, has been long used for sending forth pictures wrapped in sound. Thus, Indian music is both, the vision and the abstraction. A Ragamala illustration, while personifying a Raga or a Ragini, aims at revealing such visual personality of the illustrated Raga.

Indian music has three major Raga-systems innovated by great legendary masters of the past, named Hanuman, Narad and Meskarana. The treatise of the eleventh century scholar of music Sarangadeva is also credited to have added some new dimensions to Raga-system. This folio, seeking to personify Ragini Seehuti, rendered using Kangra art idiom of Pahari art, in exact pursuance to the model of the famed Kangra Ragamala set of circa 1810 A. D., has been rendered, like all Pahari Ragamala sets, under Meskarana system, the ideal of all Pahari artists. Though the number of Ragas, Raginis and Ragaputras differ under different systems, this broad frame under which a Raga has a Ragini, one or more, and some Ragaputras, is common to them all. Under Meskarana system every Raga has five Raginis and eight Ragaputras and accordingly Seehuti is one of Malkaus’ five Raginis, the other four being Gunakali, Devagandhari, Gandhari and Dhanashri.

Raga Malkaus, one of the basic six Ragas under any system, has been visualised with a princely personality with regalia around. In one way or other, Malkaus’ all five Raginis incorporate this regal aspect into their beings and visual representations. Seehuti is a powerful Ragini capable of charging the entire ambience from one end to other but is cast into soft notes, rhythmically rising pitch and gentle tones. In its visualisation as a young tender woman having a pair of lions under her command such two-fold dimensions of Seehuti most appropriately reveal. While lions represent the power and regalia of the Ragini, the young tender lady, its soft notes, rhythmic rise of pitch and gentle tones.

This description by Prof. P.C. Jain and Dr. Daljeet. Prof. Jain
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[Michael]

I'm not surprised you're confused.

[Nichi]

I'm not surprised you're confused.

Sometimes I can tune in to the energies, but I never make the mistake of presuming that I understand Hinduism. The more one reads, the more complex it gets, really.

To my un-illuminated mind, my westerly-linguistic mind, for example, I want to put dakinis, yoginis, and raginis in some broad category of their own. They seem to be minor, adjunctive players in the vast panorama of deities.

But here in raginis we have thought-forms (for lack of a better word) as opposed to entities... And if one understands that much, then it's apparent that the only way to understand raginis is to understand Indian Classical Music. And you know how complex that is!

Still, there is some lovely art dedicated to the raginis...

[Nichi]

This pops up today, and again, an understanding of Indian Classical Music seems essential to understanding the following:




This excellent miniature represents visual transform or manifestation of Ragaputra Chandra – Moon, also named Chandrakaya – appearance or body of the moon, the fifth son of Raga Malkaus, one of the six principal Ragas in Indian tradition of the classical music – vocal or instrumental. Identical to Chandrakaya is the Ragaputra Chandrabimba – the Moon’s reflection, the second son of the Raga Hindola. The term Ragaputra is a combination of two terms, Raga and ‘putra’, one meaning a mode of singing or performing on an instrument pursuing standards or discipline as set under norms of classical Indian music, and other meaning a son or offspring. Thus, a ragaputra is the son, offspring, or an offshoot of a Raga, obviously, the one sharing with the main Raga its body – main features, and spirit – its power to inspire a certain set of emotions.

Like its father Malkaus, a melody of unfathomable depths, relating to riches, prosperity, royal grandeur and youthful love, Chandra or Chandrakaya is a musical mode that sings of love manifesting in enjoyment as its dominant spirit and celebrates it. Like Malkaus, its father as also its prime source, sung after midnight, Chandra is dedicated to the moon and is sung when the moon has its translucent glow spread all over. Like Malkaus Ragaputra Chandra is perceived in the tradition of art as manifesting visually in the form of a youthful prince endowed with divine beauty and lustre, clad in rich costume, a part of its ensemble being essentially yellow – the colour of its father Malkaus’ ensemble, and bejewelled with lustrous ornaments. It has been perceived as riding a chariot that a pair of stags draws across a land strewn all over with beautiful flowers, hills and a lake – the nature in its most brilliant facet.

The Ragaputra Chandra shares the basic spirit of the moon too, at least its luminosity, intoxicating influence and its mystique. The moon has been a timeless metaphor for beauty and an in exhaustible source of aesthetic delight to poets, painters and all. Obviously the Ragaputra Chandra has its share of these features, especially of the moon’s mystique and luminosity. It is a mode that sends around a wave of tranquility and lulls the listener with its soothing touch. The tradition has invariably compared the body and the body-colour of Ragaputra Chandra with the colour and fragrance of Jasmine flowers for its soft gentle notes have the same delicate touch as has a jasmine flower, besides that like jasmine flower that blooms only in the night in the light of moon Ragaputra Chandra is also a melody of the moonlit night.
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[Nichi]

Devgandhar Ragini

[Nichi]

Ragini Todi

[Nichi]

Ragini Asavari

[Nichi]

Ragini Dipika

[Michael]

smooth

[Nichi]

Todi Ragini

[Nichi]

Karnati Ragini

[Nichi]

Todi Ragini

[Nichi]

Todi Ragini