Dipak Raga: Folio from a Ragamala Series (Garland of Musical Modes)

1630-01-01T00:00:00Z

The Dipak Raga is associated with night and is meant to evoke the mood of intimacy between lovers. Legend has it that one of Emperor Akbar’s musicians started a palace fire after being forced to play this raga against his better judgment. Typically, depictions of this raga incorporate fire imagery of some sort; here, it takes the form of a pair of women holding lamps. No illusionistic space is shown and the figures are juxtaposed within a mapped architectural space as is typical of Malwa painting from the first half of the seventeenth century.