File:Ragamala Paintings 35.jpg

English: Detail of Ragamala miniature entitled 'Hindola raga'. English transliteration at base is spelled 'Hindole Raug'. Depicts Krishna and Radha, against a background of rain-laden clouds, sitting on a swing surrounded by a posse of girls carrying fly whisks and other objects. Since India depends on the monsoon, black clouds are not an ominous sign, but rather a source of celebration and cause people to rejoice. Ragamala paintings are images which depict, in physical form, the 'modes' or scales used in Indian Classical Music, known as ragas. Usually accompanied by an inscription or poem, they elucidate the season and time of day in which a raga was meant to be performed, as well as its mood, and often portray the Hindu deities with which they are individually associated. The concept may have originally come about through the use of personification as an aide memoire for musicians, which then developed into physical imagery. This collection, which is purportedly called the Raga Kalpadruma, originates from Jaipur in Northern India and has the description of the Raga written in Sanskrit on the back of each image. Including some Bengali and English text as well, the collection also contains a few pages from another Indian music manuscript, also written in Sanskrit. It was gifted to Edinburgh University by Dwarkanath Tagore (1794-1846), grandfather of the poet laureate Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) and is one of two sets of Ragamala paintings in the Oriental Manuscripts Collection, the other being Or.Ms 114. Sources: Watson, L. (2012), What is Ragamala?, http://dulwichonview.org.uk/2012/01/20/what-is-ragamala/ (accessed 05/06/14). http://www.ed.ac.uk/about/museums-galleries/talbot-rice/archive/ragamala (accessed 05/06/14)