"Raga Chitra" by Dr. Daljeet - Review by R. Ramachandra

This volume differs considerably from its predecessors on the same subject in many significant points, much in its favour. Earlier volumes by Ebeling & Waldschmidt were written with more emphasis on iconography than music, as they were basically foreigners. Also due to the technical constraints of the times in which they were published, the books had a limited number of colour illustrations, the rest being black & white. This present volume has more than 230 glorious colour illustrations.

The learned author begins with a brief but comprehensive history of Hindustani Classical Music, managing to mention most of the significant texts along the way. Then starting about the evolution of Ragamala Painting, she states with brilliant intuition that "The artists of the ragamala paintings imagined a form of the formless ragas and personified the impersonal".

The subtitle of the book gives a misleadingly narrow view of the scope and contents of the book. Though about a little over a hundred illustrations may be about Deccani ragamala paintings, more belong to other styles including the mesmerisingly magical Kangra paintings, much to the utter delight of the reader.

After giving a bird's eye view of the various styles of ragamala painting, she deals with the aesthetics, emotions and shringara in them, followed by a more specific analysis of the uniqueness of the Deccani style.

Then follows individual analysis of the 44 Deccani paintings along with similar paintings of other styles, of the same ragas, profusely illustrated. Most curious is the details of the ancient game of Chaupar (Pagade in Kannada) given in the description of Ragaputra Bhramar, because he is shown playing it! The game's importance in "Mahabharata" is also mentioned.

Summing up, this monograph may well arguably be the most comprehensive and most illuminatingly illustrated one published on the subject to date. The book's beautiful design with decorative margins to many pages also draws attention. The icing on the cake, as it were, is the next day delivery by Amazon, with a whopping 25% discount!